<h3>Documenting Madiba</h3>
Sahm Venter, Author
<div id="attachment_36678" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36678" class="size-medium wp-image-36678" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0152.jpg 1361w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Sahm Venter. Photography by Karen Mwendera</div>
<blockquote>“He saw people; he wasn’t one of those leaders who would see only famous people.”</blockquote>
South African author, Sahm Venter, spent most of her 25 years as a journalist covering the anti-apartheid struggle, before joining the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a senior researcher.
In June, with her colleague at the foundation, Vimla Naidoo, she released a book, I Remember Nelson Mandela, a collection of stories on the people who worked closely with Mandela.
“Everybody just loved him, and because he was such a decent person and because he saw people; he wasn’t one of those leaders who would see only famous people,” says Venter.
Mandela’s ability to pay attention to every single person in his presence was something Venter admired.
It was Christmas 1995, a year after South Africa gained independence with Mandela as head of state. Venter, along with five other journalists, spent Christmas day with him at the Transkei (in the southeastern region of South Africa).
“We had to meet him at like five in the morning and there were police guarding his house. He went and shook hands with every one of them and said ‘Merry Christmas’,” Venter recollects.
“When we walked through the villages for five hours, every single person and child who came out, he stopped, greeted and shook their hands. He asked for their name, asked how they are, what they are going to be when they are grow up, what class they are in at school.”
At the time, Venter quietly observed and remembers being blown away by Mandela’s humility.
A year later, at the launch of South Africa’s Constitution in Cape Town, Venter was among the few journalists who reported on the historical milestone.
“I was sitting next to this woman and I introduced myself from the SABC and she asked ‘are you Sahm Venter?’ and I said, ‘yes, why?’ And she said ‘well, the other day, Madiba called me up in front of these world leaders and introduced me to the whole crowd as you’. So he thought it was me because I had spent all this time with him,” Venter says, with a laugh.
“But that’s the kind of man he was, he valued everybody and everyone who worked with him felt that. And on top of it, he had a fantastic sense of humour,” she says.
<h3>Protecting Madiba</h3>
Conroy Herandien, Former bodyguard
<div id="attachment_36681" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36681" class="size-medium wp-image-36681" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0199.jpg 1361w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Conroy Herandien. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“Happy birthday Tata, come back please, urgently.”</blockquote>
Conroy Herandien was only 21 years old when he was tasked with protecting South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela. The former policeman was recruited into the presidential unit as a bodyguard after Mandela became president in 1994.
Herandien says he got to travel 22 countries with Mandela and his staff during his presidential years.
But apart from meeting with delegates and other presidents, he got to witness some of Mandela’s most intimate moments on board the aircraft.
“When everything quietens down and you board the plane, that’s when the intimate part starts. You help him take off his shoes, make him comfortable, take out his hearing aids, switch them off, that’s where the personal came in,” Herandien says.
“He had this thing about newspapers. If you give him the newspapers in the morning, please don’t touch them! Don’t open page two or anything because when he saw that the newspaper was opened, he wouldn’t want to read it anymore. He was a disciplined man and like many elders, had his own mannerisms and was also very stubborn at times especially when it came to the security part of things,” shares Herandien, with a laugh.
At times, Mandela would make his own bed even though there was staff to do it. This was the discipline instilled in him from 27 hard years in prison.
Herandien says he learned this discipline from Madiba, and attests to applying it in his everyday life. “He helped us grow where we didn’t stand back for anybody and everyday was a learning curve,” he says.
Herandien can’t help but wish Mandela was still around. As South Africa celebrates what would have been Mandela’s 100th birthday on July 18, Herandien recalls one particular experience celebrating Mandela’s birthday on one of their trips.
Shortly after midnight, the president’s plane landed at the Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital. Herandien and a colleague were one of the first to wish Mandela a happy birthday.
“No, no, thank you very much, very good, very good!” Herandien imitates Madiba’s response in his recognizable voice.
“That was him. He made everybody feel special,” Herandien says.
If he had the opportunity to wish Mandela one more time, he says these would be his words: “Happy birthday Tata, come back please, urgently.”
<h3>Impressing Madiba</h3>
Tladi Ditshego, Former international affairs coordinator
<div id="attachment_36677" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36677" class="size-medium wp-image-36677" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0027.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Tladi Ditshego. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“He gave me that ability to recognize people and feel good around people and to know them deeper.”</blockquote>
During apartheid, African National Congress (ANC) member Tladi Ditshego left South Africa to live in the United States (US) on exile. He studied at Georgetown University in Washington DC in 1990. At this stage, he was the treasurer of the ANC Youth League chapter based there. After Mandela left prison, one of his missions was to visit some of the ANC members living in exile. As a result, Mandela happened to visit Ditshego’s university too.
“When I met him at that time he was obviously such a revered leader, I was shivering,” says Ditshego.
Ditshego worked closely with him during his stay in the US.
“I advised him on certain things and participated in discussions before his interviews, I added value to some of his speeches and everything else and he says ‘come and work with me in Johannesburg’,” recalls Ditshego.
He consulted with his wife, processed his exile indemnity forms and did what anyone would have done if asked personally to work for Mandela.
1992 marked the beginning of his journey working with Mandela as his international affairs coordinator and they traveled to many countries together. One of his first assignments was to Senegal for a summit.
“That was my first international assignment with him and I didn’t know his modus operandi,” says Ditshego.
After meeting, greeting and networking alongside Mandela, Ditshego was called to meet with the president once the event ended.
“He said, ‘Tladi come over here’, and he sat down and said to me, ‘who was the lady we met dressed like this?’ And I said ‘I don’t know’,” Ditchego says.
“So he looked at me and said ‘ok, after that lady, there was another gentlemen’&#8230; And he would describe the way he was dressed. And I said, ‘but I don’t know the guy’, and he went on for the third and ‘I said I don’t know’ again.”
Ditshego was disappointed at not being able to identify any of the people Mandela asked him about. “He might have felt that I was very stupid, you know, and I couldn’t sleep that night,” he says.
The next day Mandela asked him the same type of questions after they met more people at an event. This time, Ditshego went prepared. He carried a notebook and wrote down every detail about each person Mandela interacted with.
Ditshego narrates the conversation he had with Mandela afterwards.
“Tladi, how was the day?”
‘Tata, I think it went on very well.’
“Remember we met a lady dressed like this…”
“Oh, ‘that’s Penelope from…’ ”
Ditshego had everything written down and had an answer for every person Mandela asked him about.
When they returned to South Africa, Mandela even told Ditshego’s boss, at the time Thabo Mbeki.
“Ey, Tladi is so smart, he knows everybody in the world and at that conference, he knew everybody,” Mandela said to Mbeki.
From then on, Ditshego’s confidence was restored. Not only did he learn to pay attention to detail whilst working with Mandela, but it is what he now applies in his day-to-day life.
“He gave me that ability to recognize people and feel good around people and to know them deeper, rather than to just say ‘hi, how are you?’” says Ditshego, who is now an entrepreneur and CEO at J&amp;J Group in Johannesburg.
<h3>Idolizing Madiba</h3>
Vimla Naidoo, Former staff
<div id="attachment_36679" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36679" class="size-medium wp-image-36679" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0174.jpg 1361w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Vimla Naidoo. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“I hope wherever Madiba is, he just feels the love, not just from his staff or family, but just South Africa and the world.”</blockquote>
It was in September 1995 that Vimla Naidoo first started working for the presidency. She was in the protocol team and her first task was to put together a reception that Mandela was hosting for Pope John Paul II. Minsters, the cabinet and several distinguished guests were invited to the prestigious reception.
It being Naidoo’s second day on the job, she was excited and nervous working behind the scenes. The event went smoothly and it was just about to end.
Little did she know she was about to meet two of the most respected men in the world.
“Our director at the protocol, said ‘come’ and I was like ‘where are we going?’ And he said ‘we are going to join this line of people greeting Madiba and the Pope’,” recollects Naidoo.
“I was so shocked but I was elated. I mean it was my second day on the job. I thought I was going to go through a couple of months before I ever got to see Madiba!
“I walked right past the Pope with my hand stretched out to greet Madiba, and he looked at me and he laughed and said, ‘aren’t you going to greet the Pope’? And I thought ‘oh my gosh, I’m going to be fired on my second day at work’. So I did a double take, went back, shook the Pope’s hand, I think, and he said something like ‘bless you, child’.”
A shy Naidoo walked back to Mandela, who then asked her, “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?’, trying the gauge his new staff member’s age.
“So he just kind of made me feel more comfortable and at ease. And I thought I royally screwed up. And so that always sticks with me,” says Naidoo, never able to forget that first encounter with him. After staying on in the presidency for a few years, it was normal meeting the iconic president most days.
“I think just to let him know how much we love him and how he will always be a part of our hearts…” Naidoo says, getting emotional. We pause the interview for a bit.
“It’s such an emotional experience and thinking about Madiba and talking about him I mean, especially during this time of the year…And thinking about other birthdays that we’ve shared, you know, and we’ve all been running around like worker bees trying to make sure that he has a great time,” she continues.
“I hope wherever Madiba is, he just feels the love, not just from his staff or family, but just South Africa and the world.”
<h3>Healing Madiba </h3>
Jay Naidoo, Former minister of reconstruction and development
<div id="attachment_36680" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36680" class="size-medium wp-image-36680" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC_0197.jpg 1361w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Jay Naidoo. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
<blockquote>“His remarkable magic of connecting with children was in fact one of the greatest triumphs that he could teach us.”</blockquote>
At an event commemorating Nelson Mandela, Jay Naidoo, a political and social activist and founding general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), shares one of the funniest moments involving Mandela and Naidoo’s then two-year-old son Kami.
In 1994, when South Africa had just gained independence, Naidoo was appointed minister of reconstruction and development in Mandela’s cabinet.
Mandela was addressing the people during the launch of a campaign on how the leadership and communities could work together.
Naidoo attended the launch with his wife Lucie Page and Kami.
“Madiba is making the main speech. He is opening, and Kami decided that when Madiba is making his speech, he is going to go there and stand in front of everybody and tug Madiba’s trousers’,” Naidoo narrates.
Lucie and Naidoo looked at each other wondering which parent would pick up Kami tugging the president’s pants, whilst he was speaking.
“So I said ‘ok I will volunteer’. The first time I go and I take him and I put him on my lap. But no, he is not content with that,” Naidoo says.
Oblivious to the important speech Mandela was delivering, the little boy returned to him. This time, Lucie fetched Kami.
But her efforts were unsuccessful.
Kami went after Mandela a third time.
But this time, Mandela responded.
“He takes him in and puts him on the podium and continues the speech. Kami didn’t say a word.” Naidoo laughs.
“So Madiba, bless his soul, he loved children. There was a child inside of him that he missed for those 27 years. That is his greatest loss; the laughter of children, the touch of children, the love and innocence and the love of children. So his remarkable magic of connecting with children was in fact one of the greatest triumphs that he could teach us. He was a great teacher,” says Naidoo, fondly remembering Madiba.
Naidoo wished that Mandela’s love for children would transcend through society. However, the post-apartheid transition wasn’t easy especially for the politicians who had the task of rebuilding the country.
“Madiba once had a conversation with me when he talked about the reconstruction and development program of the soul and I said to him, ‘Madiba, I know we need to heal but they aren’t measuring us on healing, they are measuring us on how many houses, jobs and schools we are building’.”
Only now does Naidoo realize that “it was a stupid mistake, because we didn’t do the work of healing, first within ourselves, because we all carry this wound”.
This was something he believes Mandela was trying to teach them all.
Naidoo ends by saying: “If only we could just learn that and live with love and compassion and generosity, the triumph of what Madiba represented over fear and prejudice and racism….”

A group of American and South African students, aged from 11 to 19, met with Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, on 2 June 2009. This is part of a series of activities ahead of Mandela Day on 18 July.

Mandela Through Their Eyes

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

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No Cutting Corners When It Comes To Business For These Women

Forbes Woman Africa’s Godfrey Mutizwa chats with Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education and Training to discuss her plans for youth and enterprise development as to create jobs and get South Africa thriving.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/06/17/the-future-in-her-hands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Future In Her Hands</a>

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One on One With Naledi Pandor SA Minister of Higher Education

Where most youngsters would opt for a business degree before stepping into business, Ropafadzo Zimunya and Munashe Musarurwa did it the other way around.
In a small town named Mutare in Zimbabwe, just out of high school, the now 20-year-olds looked inwardly for inspiration, and found it in their backyards.
The co-founders of a company named Greenit Diversified Group, they make baking flour out of bananas. Such unconventional thinking came from need, and their research on alternative foods – most likely, the future of food in Africa.
“I think alternative foods are the next big thing on the market because of the way Africa itself is going,” says Musarurwa, also the operations manager of Greenit.
The two finished high school in 2016 and was dabbling with some business ideas when they came across alternative products for bananas.
“My partner was like ‘there’s something called banana flour, have you ever heard of it’?” Zimunya, Greenit’s CEO, tells FORBES AFRICA.
“I was like no, ‘but let’s do it, let’s try it out’. And we have bananas in our backyard, so why not?’”
So the two harvested the green bananas, dried them and crushed them into powder, not sure if this was going to end up as a disastrous science lab experiment. Thankfully, it didn’t.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/05/12/save-jobs-or-save-energy-the-dilemma-of-going-green/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Save Jobs Or Save Energy? The Dilemma Of Going Green</a>
“It’s not something we invented, it was there traditionally. The thing is the traditional one does not outperform wheat flour,” says Zimunya.
The pair played around with different ingredients, and permutations and combinations until they came up with a breakthrough product that morphed into better flour.
Immediately, Zimunya wrote down a business plan. With their final product, they reached out to a local baker as prospective suppliers. “Am I seriously going to use banana flour to make cupcakes?” he asked them.
Eventually, the pair were able to convince him. The baker prepared a batch of cupcakes with their flour and they were a success.
“We were actually surprised at how well it came out, because I was sceptical at first,” says Zimunya.
<div id="attachment_36532" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36532" class="size-medium wp-image-36532" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Farmers collecting bananas to manufacture banana flour. Photo provided.</div>
They later advertised their product to other bakers, farmers and the community.
“We were looking for millions, and in our dreams we thought it would happen in a day, but when we started going around telling people, they thought we were crazy!” says Zimunya.
Word got around in the streets of Mutare and that’s when the funding came in.
“We really tried to sell across the nation because that’s our aim, and it’s the most difficult thing to do if you are a Zimbabwean manufacturer,” says Zimunya.
In a country heavily reliant on imports on account of failing food production, Greenit had the opportunity to produce a low-cost alternative food option locally. They sold their first batches at $3 for 500 grams making it the cheapest alternative flour in Zimbabwe.
“We have now reached about 600 people in five months and made around $800,” says Zimunya.
One of their aims is to become wheat flour’s biggest competitors. But to do this, the boys were going to need a lot of goodwill – and financing.
Their first investment came from $5,000 which they won after applying for the Celebration Church Mutare Padare business forum last year.
This happened to be the same church the boys first met in and solidified their friendship.
Early this year, they won another $10,000 from the Youth Entrepreneurs Program financed by CBZ Bank in Zimbabwe.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/03/16/new-wave-disruptors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The New Wave Of Disruptors</a>
Despite Greenit’s infancy, the two admit they have been able to achieve a lot in a short time. Their products now retail in some supermarkets and small shops in Mutare.
Their priority though is to use the money to set up a factory to be able to keep up with the demand. The duo aim to even sell their products outside of Zimbabwe.
“Since then we have been able to produce two tonnes of the banana flour and have sold over 1,000 units since,” Musarurwa says.
But as with any business, they have had challenges, and some costly learnings along the way. Despite their eagerness and professionalism as business owners, they still face prejudice as young people.
“The most difficult challenge we face is that people don’t take us seriously at times,” says Musarurwa.
They are also more cautious when it comes to making promises or signing agreements, and have learned not to trust easily.
“Everything that you do has to be written down,” says Musarurwa. “No matter how small it is, if you want to do something with someone, put an agreement to that.”
Zimunya hopes to study business management while Musarurwa wants a marketing degree. They also plan to expand their production in the alternative food sectors, producing banana porridge for infants and adults, and diversifying to fertilizer production with banana peels.
They were also invited to attend the 10th African Union Private Sector Forum in Egypt early May. They want to expand their network beyond Zimbabwe as Africa is in need of more alternative food sources.
Zimunya says he won’t rest until he sees their names on FORBES AFRICA’s Under 30 list one day.
<div id="attachment_36533" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36533" class="size-medium wp-image-36533" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01.jpg 756w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />The final product of banana flour created by Ropafadzo Zimunya and Munashe Musarurwa</div>

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Zim Duo Find A Fortune In Their Backyards

Picture this: remote rural Africa, where communities assiduously farm vast stretches of arable land not knowing anything about digital technology or drones that can transform their lives.
Now picture this: forward-thinking innovators and entrepreneurs who swap the city for the village and lend these communities the tech and savvy to change farming – and their fortunes – forever.
Agriculture, the mainstay of Africa’s informal economies, needs a facelift, and some new faces to talk tech to power. Agri-tech is the buzzword, and we profile three innovators spearheading change in their communities. They grew up on these farms, and knowing their earth best, have created the technology they need, in turn revolutionizing agriculture, from the little corners of Africa.
<h4>‘Clarity From Above’ 
James Paterson, South Africa</h4>
<div id="attachment_36233" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36233" class="size-medium wp-image-36233" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO.jpg 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />James Paterson. Photo supplied.</div>
An unidentified flying object hovers over a 150-hectare orange farm in a small town called Clanwilliam in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
It’s the first time James Paterson is testing his homemade drone. The object flies over the mountainous terrain offering a bird’s eye view, then singles out a tree with stunted growth. The object detects that the tree is not receiving enough water.
The object looks like a prop out of the Transformers movie series. It has eyes too – a camera lens – to monitor what’s happening on the ground. Paterson, 29, controls this propeller-enhanced technology using a controller. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aerobotics, a company that interprets satellite and aerial drone analytics to enable farmers.
He calls it “clarity from above”.
The drone space in Africa has significantly developed over the years, and the view from below has certainly changed too. In Rwanda, drones are a common sight, famously used to deliver blood and medical supplies to remote areas, and here in this small South African farm, it’s being used to improve the way we grow food.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2018/05/02/drones-by-africa-for-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Drones By Africa, For Africa</a>
Aerobotics’ core mandate is to provide data on tree crops, enabling farmers with information on disease, pests and water usage. They are able to tell the farmers if a tree lacks nutrition and what it needs.
“Find one small thing that is going to improve the farmers’ life and then focus on that,” says Paterson.
“Instead of just giving the farmer a picture or a map, we give him exactly what’s going on with the tree and we can track that over time.”
He believes this would be useful in areas such as Cape Town with the ongoing water crisis.
He co-founded the company with Benji Meltzer in 2014 after they built drones in Paterson’s garage. Paterson, who grew up on a fruit farm, had always loved aeronautics. Meltzer is also the Chief Technology Officer of Aerobotics.
Now, he is able to merge farming and tech into something he enjoys doing on a daily basis; running an aeronautical company providing farm analytical services.
<blockquote>“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36240" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36240" class="size-medium wp-image-36240" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Aerobotics interprets satelitte and aerial drone analytics to help farmers.</div>
But running the company hasn’t always been easy. Apart from competing with drone companies providing similar services, their biggest challenge has been trying to convince farmers to use their product.
“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things,” says Paterson.
“But even then, after we have met with them and we show them what that can do, they can really understand this is something that can help them on the farm.”
Currently, they have over 200 clients in countries such as the United States, Russia and South Africa.
Paterson has been one of the few to benefit from drone innovation in agriculture. He says he and the team were the only South African startups amongst 24 companies around the world to be part of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator in San Francisco early this year.
They have also secured an R8 million ($663,000) fund from two venture capital firms who Paterson says saw the benefit of their software for farmers. They are currently undergoing a new round of funding.
Aerobotics’ Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Willis, believes that technology in farming can assist in better risk mitigation and enhancing efficiencies around yields.
“I think those two things together will add to making a more efficient agricultural sector in Africa,” he says.
Five years from now, Paterson predicts drones will become more autonomous.
“In the future, you won’t be concerned about the drone, it will just do all the work for you.”
<h4>Smart Farming 
Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Abia State, Nigeria</h4>
<div id="attachment_36235" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36235" class="size-medium wp-image-36235" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841.jpg 1181w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Photo supplied.</div>
From a farm in the Abia State of Nigeria, Dr Ndubuisi Ekekwe talks to us about a table.
Not just any table, but a small square-shaped table resting on one leg, which actually is “an electronic farm diary” that records and collects crucial information for farmers.
Ekekwe calls it Zenvus, which he created in 2011. It collects data on the soil’s pH, moisture and temperature, and records the sun’s intensity and humidity in the air. An inbuilt solar panel charges it.
The device is his contribution to smart farming. It wirelessly transmits the recorded data to a cloud server from which farmers access it on a mobile app and get real-time data.
“2020 to 2030 will be the decade of agri-tech,” Ekekwe tells FORBES AFRICA.
Zenvus services corporates, and have supplied to 500,000 farming entities. He says it’s currently in a partnership with the government of Cross River State in Nigeria, as well as Abia State.
Ekekwe says he has been approached by a number of international companies wanting to cash in on Zenvus. However, he has been reluctant to sell it.
“Someone wanted to buy Zenvus for $5 million five years ago. I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million, just to tell you the kind of value it has,” he says.
For Ekekwe, it’s more important to service farmers. To date, he prides himself in having the largest farmers’ cooperative in Africa.
<blockquote>“I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36239" class="size-medium wp-image-36239" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Zenvus collects crucial data for farmers in Nigeria.</div>
Ekekwe grew up as a farm boy in a village called Ovim in Abia State. Growing up, he received distinctions throughout his high school year and went on to acquire an engineering degree, four master’s degrees, two doctorates in management and microelectronics, as also a medical robotics degree from the United States.
He chose to move back and stay on in his village.
Ovim is known for the Ajonkwu festival when the Igbo community gather to celebrate the harvesting season.
According to Ekekwe, farmers rely on the moon to obtain a greater yield. As a result, tech for farming isn’t something a lot of people in his community are open to.
“Farmers are not literate and that is why we are not selling tech to them, we are selling the service,” he says.
According to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), 65% of Africa’s labor force is engaged in agriculture. Despite this, agricultural productivity on the African continent still lags behind significantly compared to other continents. AGRA suggests that farming only accounts for 32% of the continent’s GDP. Africa therefore does not reap the benefits of agriculture.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/06/05/agriculture-behind-africas-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Agriculture Behind Africa’s Health</a>
Ekekwe says the future of Africa is farming. He believes the convergence of tech and agriculture will result in more people wanting a piece of the pie of agri-tech startups and open up more opportunities for Africans across the continent.
<h4>‘Uber For Farmers’ 
Brian Bosire, Kisii, Kenya</h4>
<div id="attachment_36237" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36237" class="wp-image-36237 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="181" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-600x361.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-768x462.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-1024x617.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Brian Bosire. Photo supplied.</div>
On a farm in southwestern Kenya, in the small town of Kisii, a field agent reads data off a yellow square-shaped monitor, which has wires running into a smaller device connecting to the soil. It takes him about five minutes to read data regarding the soil’s PH, water levels, and disease and pests found on it. In almost two minutes, the data is sent to the farmer.
The field worker’s job is done and he looks at his phone to find his next requested farm match.
The device that has helped him is named UjuziKilimo, which is Swahili for ‘knowledge farming’. Its founder, 24-year-old Brian Bosire, calls it “an Uber service for farmers”, and this on a farm that even Uber might find difficult to access.
The field worker travels to the nearest farmer who has requested his services. This kind of smart farming service costs the Kenyan farmer about $20.
Bosire had always wanted to become a key contributor to Kenya’s agricultural industry. He grew up in Kisii, a town known for its highlands and wet weather – favorable climate for farming. Frustrated by the lethargic technological growth in the agricultural space in his town, he sought to create something innovative that would improve the yields for the farmers of Kisii.
“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
Bosire says what he tries to do is become as close to the farmer as possible. As a result, he and his team target small-scale farmers and read data on vegetable crops, maize being one of them. The UjuziKilimo can read data from about five to 10 acres of land. Farmers can request data on their farms by simply sending an SMS so even farmers with the most basic cellular devices can benefit.
<blockquote>“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36238" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36238" class="size-medium wp-image-36238" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />UjuziKilimo helps improve yields.</div>
When Bosire moved to the big city of Nairobi to study, he took advantage of every opportunity to pursue his dreams as an entrepreneur. To date, he has founded three companies, all operating in the tech innovation space, UjuziKilimo one of them. 
It’s old hat that Kenya, the country which pioneered M-Pesa as one of Africa’s leading startups, is home to a lot more players in the tech space. But Bosire says his business is different.
Earlier this year, his other innovation company, HydroIQ, won the Startup of the Year Africa 2018 award. Slightly linked to agri-tech, it’s a virtual water network operator which connects water utility companies and water consumers through an online platform. It allows for mobile money payments, data analytics, leakage detections and water use and consumption through sensors that relay information.
All this leads one to believe that the future face of farming in Africa is young.
Bosire hopes UjuziKilimo can grow to reach from 10,000 farmers to over 50,000.
“We want to become the largest data center of agriculture analytics in Africa,” he says. Future plans include launching UjuziKilimo in the United Kingdom under the name ‘Soil Pal’.
&nbsp;

Green Combine harvesting small path of wheat

‘2020 to 2030 Will Be The Decade Of Agri-Tech’

On a scorching hot day, we travel to the Zola area of Soweto, a township south of Johannesburg in South Africa.
Despite the soaring mercury, the trip is worth it.
Zola was known to be home to some of South Africa’s greatest musicians including Brenda Fassie, Mandoza and M’du, as well as soccer players John ‘Shoes’ Lesiba Moshoeu of Orlando Pirates and Mongezi Joel ‘Ace’ Mnini of Moroka Swallows.
Now, it’s also home to a promising fashion designer.
The small town, with a rough population of 44,000, is where self-taught South African designer Zamaswazi Nkosi crafts his creations for the city’s catwalks.
Nkosi greets us by the corrugated gates of the entrance to his compound dressed in a blue golf shirt featuring an African print pattern – the same shirt he showcased at the South African Fashion Week (SAFW) Spring/Summer 2017. His pants complement the look, along with blue loafers and a white fedora.
Ushering us in, he politely offers to carry some of our equipment. The genial, soft-spoken Nkosi then shows us around.
His workspace, which was once a garage, is attached to his bedroom. Clothes hang on a rack next to the door. Two sewing machines sit at the corner of the room with fabric, needles and thread neatly stacked beside them. Next to them is a table where he irons his garments. You can tell he is a one-man army.
The wall on the opposite side of the room is filled with a collage of photographs, newspaper clippings and awards. A headline from The Citizen reads: “A daring designer”.
“My love for fashion started the day I had no clothes to wear,” Nkosi opens.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2015/04/01/new-kids-on-the-fashion-block/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: New Kids On The Fashion Block</a>
Growing up with a single mother and as one of six siblings, he was forced to improve his circumstances at home. He developed the art of restoration.
“It started with reviving the old to new. Sometimes I would take my sisters’ clothes and redo them so that I could have something to wear,” he says.
Little did he know at the time his innovations would one day be part of the fabric of high fashion in South Africa.
Nkosi began by sewing clothes using his mother’s old sewing machine. From there, he would piece together fabric lying around the house.
“I took my mother’s tablecloth, I stole it actually,” he admits.
Nkosi then crafted the tablecloth with a shirt of his to create an entirely new piece. He enjoyed reinventing things and it’s evident in the clothes he designs and puts together today.
However, Nkosi wasn’t always into fashion. On the wall with the photos, are also the trophies and medals he has won, not for fashion, but for football.
They all date back to the time Nkosi was into soccer. As a teenager, he was a midfielder.
“I was called ‘Teko’ from Teko Modise,” he says.
He imagined becoming a world-class football player in his 20s limbering up preparing for soccer war in the stadiums.
But that dream was shattered when an injury changed the course of his life forever.
This happened when he was 16, playing football in Soweto.
“I got tackled from behind. That was when my knee twisted,” he says.
He didn’t see a doctor, and continued to play. Only now does he regret not going for treatment.
“I thought that maybe if I felt better I could play. Only to find out that I was damaging it and it became worse. Then there was a point where I realized it was no longer working.”
Nkosi was devastated that he may never get the chance to play football again.
He was grieving the loss of his first love not knowing he would find something he would enjoy doing, again.
His sister consoled him and encouraged him to start something new. That’s when he did some serious soul-searching. After weighing his pros and cons, he started thinking of himself as a fashion designer.
“Being a fashion designer, it’s somewhat like a calling. Because I didn’t just wake up and decide to be one or be inspired by someone,” he says.
Fashion taking over his life came as some sort of divine intervention. He says he has never looked back since.
<div id="attachment_36175" style="width: 209px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36175" class="size-medium wp-image-36175" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-600x903.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM-681x1024.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/291_KM.jpg 1361w" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />Zamaswazi Nkosi. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>
He accepted this calling and hosted fashion shows within his community, in Zola. It seemed the needle – in more ways than one – was turning in his favor.
His first show had only 10 people attending, but that did not discourage him.
Nkosi then attended a SAFW event with the hope he could one day showcase his work on the platform. He watched closely the designs of one of his favorite South African designers, David Tlale, on the runway.
“I told myself ‘no man, I can do this’.”
There was just one hurdle. He had no academic qualifications for the job.
“On big platforms like SAFW they normally require fashion qualifications like a diploma or anything that relates to fashion. So, as Zamaswazi, I had nothing on paper. I only had skill,” he says.
After countless rejections, he one day garnered the courage to speak to the founder of SAFW, Lucilla Booyzen. A nervous but determined 24-year-old Nkosi walked up to her after one of the shows.
Booyzen told Nkosi to do what he had already done before. “Just apply,” she said.
But Nkosi was not having it. The young boy from the township was determined.
“I was like, ‘no if you need paper [qualifications] and I’m dressing my own clothes and it’s proper, why can’t you let me showcase’?”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/04/19/designs-africa-michelle-obama/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Designs For Africa, And Michelle Obama</a>
She then told him to come to her office and talk about opportunities. And the rest was history.
He had to prepare a proposal and showcase his work to a number of top fashionistas. It included creating a fashion portfolio, storyboard and designs of his pieces.
“It took me two weeks to even know what ‘portfolio’ is. That’s how I learned,” says Nkosi.
He was then shortlisted for the ‘scouting menswear collection’ in association with GQ magazine in 2015.
The platform brought his designs to life and Nkosi got his first break at SAFW.
Nkosi has showcased his designs at SAFW events, designing clothes for men that are modern with an African twist. His signature is the hemmed-in African print on to modern clothing. Much like the shirt he is wearing at this interview.
Nkosi relates this to his heritage and humble beginnings that forced him to merge different kinds of material into one. Unlike some of the other designers at sought-after fashion showcases such as SAFW, Nkosi says he designs and sews his clothes himself.
In his hometown Soweto, his friends and neighbors still can’t believe the boy who once played soccer swapped the ball for a sewing machine.
After the interview, he courteously helps us again to carry out our equipment.
Parked outside his house is his red vintage Beetle car with the word ‘Zamaswazi’ engraved on it. He bought the car last year.
Even though the engine doesn’t run he says he plans to work on it so he can do the six-hour drive to attend the annual Durban July.
The trendy man in the white fedora riding a red vintage car through the scenic green landscapes of South Africa to attend a premium horseracing event – it’s a pretty picture indeed.
<div id="attachment_36176" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36176" class="wp-image-36176 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/357_KM.jpg 1902w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Zamaswazi Nkosi designs and sews his clothes himself. Photograph by Karen Mwendera.</div>

365_KM

From Football To Fashion

The 33rd edition of the South African fashion week kicked off with a bang this year. Celebrating fashion from the spring and summer collection, we had a look at what some of our local designers brought this year. Forbes Africa’s Karen Mwendera filed this report.

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Glitz And Glam At The South African Fashion Week

Tourists in Soweto, the township southwest of Johannesburg in South Africa, now have more options for staying in the same neighbourhood that was once home to two Nobel laureates, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Here, through accommodation app Airbnb, locals are increasingly turning entrepreneurs throwing open their homes for visitors wanting to savor Kasi life. As many as 20 Soweto homes are listed hosts on the Airbnb search engine – and the list is growing.
Take Nelson Tiko Mashele, a 33-year-old born and bred in Soweto, who founded Vilakazi Backpackers on the famous Orlando West street with his father, and which is located five minutes from the homes of Mandela and Tutu, and 10 minutes from the Hector Pieterson memorial.
Mashele is one of the youngest Airbnb hosts in Soweto, and his establishment one of the newest in the area. He says 70% of his guests are locals, the rest international, and business is looking good.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/06/sharing-economy-400000-guests-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Sharing Economy: 400,000 Guests At Home</a>
The day we visit, we are ushered into his spotless living room. A coffee table in the middle of the foyer is laden with sightseeing pamphlets. Hip hop music is playing in the background. The seven-bedroom house is well-appointed and Mashele charges R299 ($25) a night.
<div id="attachment_35881" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35881" class="wp-image-35881 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A room at the Vilakazi Backpackers costs R299 ($25) a night. Photo by Karen Mwendera.</div>
That’s not a bad bargain for the local life that his guests, who he says are mostly from America, Germany, Brazil and France, want to experience.
According to Airbnb, most guests choose to live like locals. Mashele says they would rather walk to tourist destinations and buy local food from the outlets on the famous Vilakazi Street.
One of Mashele’s partners is Soweto Outdoor Adventures run by Kgomotso Pooe, also his long-time friend. Their collaborations offer his guests quad-bike tours, paddling and boating rides, trips to Orlando Towers and indulging in local cuisine such as magwenyas (deep-fried dough balls) with atchar and white liver and kota (half loaf of bread filled with curry), ending the day with a shisanyama (meat cooked over an open fire).
On the opposite side, in Orlando East, is a bed-and-breakfast in operation for over 16 years. TDJ’s BnB is a home-owned business catering for local and international visitors. Their aim this year is to start using the Airbnb services to help increase their profits.
“We are looking forward to getting new guests from all over the world,” says TDJ’s manager Nomthandazo Ntshingila.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2012/08/01/staying-in-hotels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Staying In Hotels</a>
She says joining Airbnb will give her an edge moving her numbers higher than the average 30 visitors she receives per month. Currently, a room at TDJ’s costs R454 ($38) a night.
For a more authentic experience, tourists can taste African beer brewed at the guest house. Another hotspot guests can visit is Sakhumzi, a Sowetan shisanyama restaurant and bar.
A key difference between Mashele’s and Ntshingila’s businesses is that the former has Wi-Fi on site allowing him to stay active on social media.
“One of the requirements to host with Airbnb was to offer Wi-Fi services to potential clients. We then got Wi-Fi before listing on the app,” says Ntshingila.
Hosts need to be constantly connected to an online platform and keep the most updated information on their availability and business.
The accommodation hosting platform tells FORBES AFRICA they are working on refining their offerings and making “regular updates to ensure people get exactly what they are looking for”. It’s clear that for the app to take off in townships like Soweto, homeowners need to be empowered with technology.
Airbnb says it’s planning to invest $1 million from 2018 to 2020 to promote and support community-led tourism projects in Africa. The project aims to support training in hospitality and technology for township residents.
Indeed, such investments will also help upskill those living in less-developed areas within Soweto such as Kliptown and Pimville, and as a result, reduce the barriers for entrepreneurs wishing to rent out their homes and bring in precious tourism dollars, much-needed in today’s difficult times.

Author: Karen Mwendera

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA