Kuseni Dlamini, the Non-Executive Director of Massmart + Walmart, on retail tech and trends in Africa.

What is the future of retail in Africa? 
The African retail market is very robust and dynamic with a massive opportunity for growth. We have seen the rise of urbanization and industrialization in African economies, with the diversification of these economies, moving away from your traditional industries such as mining and agriculture, to other services such as ICT, so that the retail sector may thrive.
Consumer spending is projected to reach $860 billion by 2020 and increase to approximately a trillion by 2025. So you could say it is doing well… as people’s disposable income increases. That sets the basis for the retail industry to grow. The penetration of formal retail in Africa is still very low, in some markets such as Nigeria, the [informal] retail industry still accounts for 80% [of the economy], so there lies a huge opportunity for retailers such as Massmart to come in and establish their shops, playing a role in the formalization and modernization of the retail industry. Even though the informal sector of the retail industry is still an opportunity, we are still the largest wholesaler in Africa that has informal traders, kiosks and spaza shops that are still our customers. They come to us for their stock to sell to their customers. It is a win-win partnership we have with them across Africa.
Are robots now being incorporated in the retail industry? 
The digitalization of the retail industry is a way to better serve our customers. Consumers are increasingly time-poor, they are constantly looking for convenience, they want retailers to innovate and offer them the best service in the most convenient way to their lifestyles, so that requires us to constantly be innovative as we are moving into the online space.
Our online sales across our four divisions – Game, Builders Warehouse, DionWired and Makro – increased by 47%. That is the direction retail is headed globally. It is moving towards the omni-channel space, where it won’t just be bricks and mortar alone. We also don’t believe that it will move to the other extreme, where it would just be online [service].
How does African retail compare to the world? 
The retail industry in South Africa has always actively tried to be plugged-in to global retail best practices. Even before Massmart became part of Walmart, we have always benched-marked our business practices and offerings against the best retailer in the world. So there is a high level of sophistication in the South African retail industry. Our retail market is not in isolation, they are aware of what is happening in other countries such as Europe and Asia in terms of new thinking and new practices, we are at the cutting-edge. Though we are not far behind, there are opportunities to scale up and drive innovation, be proactive to customers’ changing needs and expectations. Customers are demanding high quality and retailers need to be responsive to that.
What is the future of Massmart in Africa? 
In the next three years, Massmart is looking at increasing its trading space by 35.6% and we believe that will position us to take advantage of the opportunities available from medium to long term. We also believe that partnering with local suppliers is vital to our success. We have a supplier development fund with which we are supporting 33 businesses and those businesses have helped us distribute imports as they have also enabled our suppliers to also export their goods to parts of the country. We also invest in black-owned as well as women businesses that can become part of our supply chain at a local and regional level to a global level.
How do you develop upcoming retailers? 
It is important for us because they are our retailers, if they succeed in their businesses, it means that they will continue to buy from us and sell to their customers. We need to build an inclusive economy in South Africa. We need small and medium enterprises to have a space in the economy. It can’t just be the dominance of the big retailers.

Kuseni-Dlamini-595

‘Moving Towards Omni-Channel’

The award-winning men’s fashion designer on the business of fashion and dressing up no less than the South African president.

1. Who you would like to dress and why? 
I would like to dress our [South Africa’s] head of state Cyril Ramaphosa; that would be really good on my CV. But not only that, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. When you look at ministers and presidents, they look simple yet sophisticated. What people don’t realize is the most simple outfits are the most difficult to make. You can’t over-accessorize, you just can’t over-design. You have to keep it very clean and minimalistic and also in harmony with the person’s character…So I am ready for that challenge.
2. As a designer, when is the right time to start expanding to retail? 
As designers, we all have different business strategies. What works for one designer does not necessarily work for the other. But the best time to start is when as you fully understand the business of fashion and have completed your internship. The one thing I always advise upcoming designers is to not be too much in a hurry to establish their brand, because you will end up being an overnight sensation.
3. What does it take to build a brand like Palse Homme? 
Blood, sweat and water from the moon. It’s a long journey that does not have milestones in between, the reason I say that is that it’s like running a marathon that does not have a finish line. You have to strive to get somewhere and the day you get there, that is when you get to retire.
4. How do you stay disciplined with your money? 
I am very prudent when it comes to my finances. As an entrepreneur, you cannot do it all by yourself… so I have outsourced my public relations and finance services to the experts.
5. What is your most expensive indulgence? 
Sunglasses. I once spent R6,000 ($450) on them. I am a hoarder of good sunglasses; I don’t even know how many pairs I have.
6. What is the biggest challenge you have faced in the fashion industry? 
It’s very difficult for designers to attract potential investors. People don’t understand that to be able to showcase my designs during fashion week, it means we have to pay to be part of fashion week, most importantly, we have to raise capital, and the overheads become extremely insane because you have to come up with money to be able to put together your collection. Simultaneously, when you do that, you are even unable to take orders. You are stressing about that fashion week night that will take only five to 10 minutes. Mind you, while you are working on that, you have overheads like salaries and rent.
7. What do you spend your money on? 
Traveling! I always say to people I enjoy being out of the city and the country. There is something about traveling that just shifts your mind-set and makes you more appreciative of what you have back home [South Africa]…You realize that we have it all, in terms of food to the most amazing hotels; the energy people exude is phenomenal. We live in a very beautiful country.

TLH_1302

7 Questions with Award Winning Designer – Paledi Segapo

The South African musician on how he finds culture and creative inspiration in the West African country.

Last summer, South African rapper and songwriter Senzo Vilakazi, who was in FORBES AFRICA’s Under 30 list in 2018, and better known by his stage name Kwesta, swapped his microphone for a notebook and pen 10,000 kilometers from his country of birth.
He was in Senegal on business, but recorded his thoughts in prose and memory.
“Then I just ended up staying for a couple of days because of the richness of the place,” says Kwesta.
He was captivated by the history of the West African country, and Gorée, a small island located away from the main harbor of Dakar, where slaves used to pass on their way to America.
Kwesta, who has traveled the world and performed in numerous African countries, was astounded by how much of its culture the island had managed to preserve years after slavery was abolished.
<blockquote>“I was really in love with how they have preserved their past. It is not like any other place that I have been to,” he says.</blockquote>
As soon as he landed, he was struck by the history of the island.
“It has a certain warmth; as soon as you go into it, it is almost certain that you can feel the lives that were lost there. It is a very difficult space to describe, a very inspirational and a very creative space. The people there are [so much into] culture preservation it is crazy,” says Kwesta.
On his short break, he went on a cruise ship, and visited the famous fort known as Slave House, which even former South African president Nelson Mandela once visited. The fort housed African slaves en route to the west.
“Six million slaves died there and over 20 million were shipped through the island,” says Kwesta on the facts gleaned from his trip.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/travel/2018/07/10/executive-travel-ola-orekunrins-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Executive travel: Ola Orekunrin’s India</a>
The imagery of slavery has stayed with him.
“They are just so proud [citizens]! They try to teach you about their culture. That is what I found quite interesting compared to South Africans because people here are very much westernised. I wish I could be able to bring back that pride and culture [they have],” observes Kwesta.
“Even as rappers, I always feel like we are trying to imitate the American style of rapping,” he says.
He also noticed the stark contrast of the landscape – the hospitality sector on one side and shanty towns on the other.
“When I was in my hotel, I could basically see the richness of their vegetation and on the other end, I could see their low-cost houses, which was such a weird thing to observe, because you could see the difference in the economies.”
Who would have thought the rapper’s favorite travel destination would be right here in Africa.

Youth Day Celebration concert in South Africa

Executive Travel: Kwesta’s Senegal

A traditional, informal means of saving, stokvel investment societies continue to bind communities in South Africa and is a multi-billion dollar industry. Their capital is trust, and their currency a central fund that spawns new opportunities.

In this house in Centurion in Johannesburg on a winter afternoon, there’s song, food, camaraderie and joy. And one common component that binds the women: stokvels.
For most South Africans honoring the traditional mode, this is the word synonymous with savings schemes that they have come to trust over generations.
And like this meet we are witness to today, it stands for a union in which a group of people who know and trust each other enter into an agreement to contribute a fixed amount of money towards a common pool.
The group of people we are meeting are the Akanani Sisters, stokvel members who occasionally come together, bantering over a hot meal and listening to music.
“The whole purpose of the stokvel is so that we may come together as ladies and mothers made of different age groups, so we may build and advise one another on life matters. It is not just about collecting money, we cry and laugh together,” says Bahedile Mooke, one of the members.
Stokvels, the traditional South African savings scheme with 11.5 million members in 810,000 groups contributing R50 billion ($3.76 billion) annually to the economy, is often overlooked.
“If you speak of something that is outside of that framework, then that is something else,” says Mizi Mtshali, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA).
The Akanani Sisters stokvel was formed in 2015 by three family members who gathered on a monthly basis. The group, however, is not registered with NASASA and does not save their money through financial institutions. However, they are looking at registering with NASASA as a precautionary step.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-37025 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />
<blockquote>“We got tired of meeting only when there were funerals, so we decided to start a small stokvel even if it was just for groceries,” says Sibongile Motsoeneng, treasurer of the Akanani Sisters.</blockquote>
This afternoon, they are six professionals from Johannesburg who are close friends.
“Society forces you to always put money aside – I don’t play around when money has to be paid, because we all want to be happy at the same time,” says Motsoeneng.
The monthly premium for the stokvel is R1,300 ($98) for which R500 ($37.6) is set aside towards groceries and rest distributed among the members at the end of each year.
“Our groceries are not like other stokvels, where you see them buy maize meal in large quantities. We buy groceries as per our personalized everyday needs. So the grocery would last us for about six months and one would just add on meat and other small things on a monthly basis,” says Motsoeneng.
In addition to their stokvel, they contribute a R300 ($22.5) towards each other’s birthdays for buying presents, and R2,000 ($151) for their occasional weekend holiday trips.
Nonzolo Soldati, the chairperson of the stokvel, says they drew up a constitution which dictates the size of the contributions, when the accumulated money is to be paid out, and the roles and responsibilities of the members that have to be abided by.
“If you fail to pay your monthly premiums for more than three months, that would mean you forfeit your portion of your groceries and savings at the end of the year. Also, if you fail to attend the monthly gatherings, you are fined R50 ($3.76),” says Soldati.
“We used to deposit the money in the bank, but now we no longer do so because of the exorbitant bank charges,” says Soldati.
Through these stokvels, the members’ lives have changed, as they are not unduly stressed by financial woes come January. Their finances are in order and they also don’t feel the pinch of food price hikes through the year.
Apart from the groceries they purchased last year, they each saved R17,000 ($1,280), which is nothing unusual, according to Mtshali.
<blockquote>“On average in South Africa, a stokvel consists of 20 participants and they can save [as much] R50,000 ($3,765),” says Mtshali.</blockquote>
Investing in stokvels is not without risk however. Unlike the formal financial institutions, the only security members can bank on is trust. As a result of its unregulated nature, fraud in stokvels is common.
Ask one of the Akanani Sisters members, Bongiwe Mncube, who lost all her money. She was scammed in a burial society in Kempton Park.
“We lost two people [to death] in our community in the space of two months. That is when we realized that all the money we were ‘putting away’ was not there,” says Mncube.
They were able to pay for the burial of the first bereavement, but when it came to the second, they were scraping for funds.
“We last knew that we had money, but when we went to check the bank statement, we were surprised to find out that money was not being deposited for a couple of months. So I walked away because I had no leg to stand on,” says Mncube.
Mtshali says such stories are the reason why stokvel associations must register with NASASA so they can check the legitimacy of such societies. So, should the unthinkable happen one day, the participant is able to press criminal charges.
The word stokvels is believed to have originated from the term ‘stock fair’ used to describe auctions run by English settlers in the 19th century, but as the industry is becoming the leading form of savings and investment in South Africa, it is referred to in multiple ways, such as social clubs, gooi-goois, investment clubs, kuholisana, and makgotlas. The stokvels available vary according to the needs of the members.
“As much as there are holiday stokvels and property, social and party clubs, but grocery, burial society and saving clubs are still the most dominant,” says Mtshali.
Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes have also camouflaged as stokvels.
“What has happened over the years is that a lot of operators have started abusing the word stokvels…They use that word to attract customers for whatever product they are looking to sell,” says Mtshali.
While stokvels may seem like an informal way of making money, it is serious business. Members do their homework, deliberate about which companies to invest in and make investment decisions. And the best part about it is knowing there may be a financial windfall one day. It’s cash that is built on trust and binds communities.
<h3>Stokvel Homes?</h3>
<div id="attachment_37023" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37023" class="size-medium wp-image-37023" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Nicolas Manyike</div>
Nicolas Manyike’s property stokvel leads to new investment opportunities.
Land ownership is a burning topic in South Africa, which is why publicist and businessman Nicolas Manyike founded Property Stokvel Investment, a stokvel that aims to buy and rent out properties, encouraging black people to be property owners.
Manyike, who grew up poor in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, watched his mother struggle with accommodation, yet she was a member of various grocery stokvels.
“My mother was in a lot of grocery stokvels and we would eat up all the food, then the struggle would continue. So I always thought ‘how about we use the same concept but for something that has long-term benefits for us as a black community’,” says Manyike.
He decided to rework the stokvel model to have long-term benefits.
“We need to shift our mind-set around stokvels,” he says.
He worked on his idea, through drafting the constitution and coming up with the two phases that will create the members enough capital to be able to purchase land.
“The first phase is to get 100 members that would contribute R2,100 ($158). The R100 (7.52) is for administration purposes. So that we could accumulate R1 million ($75,300) in 10 months that we will use to purchase property, or a franchise that will create profit for the members,” says Manyike.
It is only in the second phase that individual property will be bought for each member.
Manyiko says that ownership of the house will be registered in the stokvel’s name until all participants are house-holders within two years.
Property Stokvel Investment currently has over 80 members and is not registered with NASASA. Manyike believes stokvels do not need to be registered as they are self-regulating.
“All stokvels in South Africa are self-regulated. NASASA is more focused on grocery stokvels. We are bound by our constitution,” he says.
“We are banking with Nedbank as a club account and we have a committee, once we have a 100 members we will increase the number of people in the committee,” says Manyike.
Purchasing property in South Africa is a struggle due to increasing home loans and interest. Could stokvels be the future of acquiring property?
<h3>Download A Stokvel</h3>
<div id="attachment_37024" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37024" class="size-medium wp-image-37024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Tshepo Moloi</div>
Tshepho Moloi says he has championed the future of stokvels.
Imagine being a stokvel member and never having to meet? Well, that is what the future of stokvels looks like based on an app designed by Tshepho Moloi, the founder of StokFella.
“Most businesses are bought out of frustration of people saying that we could do better. I wanted to start an investment stokvel but the administration behind it was a bit of a headache,” says Moloi.
Moloi went home to Soweto, where he grew up, and observed a burial stokvel that was in existence for two years and had developed into an investment and grocery stokvel.
“I found out that the common problem is maladministration… So that is how the birth of StokFella came about,” he says.
StokFella, is a smartphone-based app that seeks to help stokvels organize, manage, communicate and be more efficient in growing their wealth.
“By doing that, it gives them access to economic opportunities. So they grow from point A to point B,” Moloi says.
In just two years, the app has 5,000 active members and is user-friendly for all age groups and LSMs.
“When stokvels want to be endorsed by us, they need to come to our offices so that we may conduct due diligence on them. However, those that just want to use the app could just download it,” says Moloi.
The main challenge StokFella faced during its initial stages was with the paperwork of regulatory laws and reaching the right market.
“But I am happy to have championed the future of stokvels. Honestly, it is not a unique solution but our implementation is how we have been able to get far,” he says.
“If 10 years from now, we still have a R49 billion ($3.69 billion) industry, then we have not done our job!” says Moloi.
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Stokvel-943

The Social Capital of Stokvels

How would you say the African fashion market is growing?
We are starting to understand the business of fashion; how to create brands that are custom-made in Africa, which is what we need to be doing and I think more than anything else, we need local customers supporting local designers. Another thing we need to start seeing is retailers supporting proudly ‘made in Africa’ or ‘made in South Africa’ products because that’s the only way for us to become game-changers in the fashion industry. When you look at big brands in the US, Europe or anywhere else in the world, they work very closely with their local designers.
Your most expensive indulgence?
Fabric! When I go to a fabric store, locally and internationally, I am like a kid in a candy store. I would rather buy expensive fabric different to whatever is available locally [South Africa], to make sure I can still sell that to my clients. When it comes to fabric, I go all out.
<div id="attachment_36789" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36789" class="size-medium wp-image-36789" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLH_9824.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />David Tlale. Photo by Karen Mwendera.</div>
What do you mostly spend your money on?
Shoes and handbags.
How have you maintained your brand over the years?
The only way for us a brand to grow is to continue reinventing ourselves every season. As a designer or as an artist, you are only as good as your previous collection. Also, don’t try and compete with anyone, but do and believe what ‘brand David Tlale’ stands for. It happens that from time to time we keep serving them the same thing, like the white blouse. Our customers also want it, but the question is, how do we reinvent it for the next season or the next collection?
The significance of grooming young African designers…?
It is realizing they are the future…the ones going to take the fashion industry to the next level making sure we still have brands from Africa to the global markets…It is important to expose them to the business of fashion because when I grew up, no one took me by the hand and said ‘David, this is how the business of fashion is’. We were told we have to showcase at fashion week but beyond that or before that, what happens? Now we understand that.
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
I was a lecturer at Vaal University for four and a half years, just before I graduated. I was able to buy my mom new furniture and I bought myself some sewing machines. I am proud to say that my investment into that machinery has made us who we are as David Tlale. We now have a studio and a brand that is growing.
How do you diversify your investments?
What we have done as David Tlale, over the years, is to build the brand and invest everything into this brand. We are now starting to look at other investment portfolios so we are able to get different sources of income, not only from clothing; making sure we invest in the brand, as a lifestyle brand, it be accessories, handbags or perfume. We are working on a lot of things because we want to ensure that in the next few years, David Tlale is a holistic fashion brand.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2015/09/01/lessons-learn-rich-famous/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Lessons To Learn From The Rich And Famous</a>
What is your most recent acquisition?
A printing machine. It is a huge investment we have made for our business making sure that we are able to look different in the industry and can print our [own] fabric.
Your worst investment decision?
To believe in someone who did not believe in my brand…I suffered dearly from it but today I am better. We are on the journey to reposition David Tlale, ensuring we become a luxury brand proudly made in South Africa by South Africans [and selling to] the international markets.
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TLH_9832

Fashion, Fame and Finances With SA Designer, David Tlale

Imagine a pinup calendar that revisits history through color, and woven in a manner that depicts your past and future in an amusing way. Confused?
Well that is what the future looks like for South African performing artist Athi-Patra Ruga, known for his flamboyant performances and tapestries that challenge social norms.
Growing up in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, Ruga knew at a young age he would become an artist, taking lessons, after school, at Belgravia Art Centre. He then received a scholarship to the Gordon Flack Davidson Academy of Design in Johannesburg.
“I had always known my body would be a site for telling stories. I feel the drive to tell stories, [I] overcame my fears – about it never been done before,” he says.
When he cut his teeth in art, he dabbled in fashion designing, incorporating fashion and art into one.
“Fashion has the power to dictate our movements physically and socially, to [a] great consequence. I have never seen it as a huge leap as both those mediums are concerned with the body,” says Ruga.
His current body of work is Queens in Exile, addressing issues of belonging and identity. However, it is his piece on the queens of Azania that put him on the cultural map.
“I feel it sparked something in the audience that [binds] our generation together. Witnessing the betrayal to the constitution I was raised with and also rainbowism, a utopian construct, played out in the country that is economically the most unequal in the world,” says Ruga.
Ruga was the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year in 2015 and has done work for luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton. Believing the world is alive with possibilities, he held on to the hope he would one day travel the world.
“I had always dreamt of going to the south of France and now for the past five years, my husband and I have been going to Toulon for the Hyères festival,” says Ruga.
The Eastern Cape has produced some of South Africa’s great political leaders, from Nelson Mandela to Steve Biko, so it is little wonder Ruga’s work has strong historical references.
“History has the ability to arm us as a dispossessed youth, with knowledge that our forefathers went through the same things we are going through and we need that knowledge to arm us to find sophisticated ways of mobilizing for economic and cultural currency,” says Ruga.
He desensitizes “uncomfortable” topics using vibrant colors. His work is represented by the WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery in Cape Town, and in Paris, by InSitu Fabienne Leclerc.
There is also a lot of story-telling in his work which comes from his father being a journalist.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-36739 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/©_RENE_HABERMACHER_ATHI_PATRA_RUGA_PORTRAIT.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/©_RENE_HABERMACHER_ATHI_PATRA_RUGA_PORTRAIT.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/©_RENE_HABERMACHER_ATHI_PATRA_RUGA_PORTRAIT-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/©_RENE_HABERMACHER_ATHI_PATRA_RUGA_PORTRAIT-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/©_RENE_HABERMACHER_ATHI_PATRA_RUGA_PORTRAIT-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/©_RENE_HABERMACHER_ATHI_PATRA_RUGA_PORTRAIT-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />
“I come from a family of people who enjoyed telling stories and I gravitate to that tradition of storytelling in my art,” says Ruga.
His industry is faced with numerous challenges, but Ruga chose early on in his career to not focus on the negative.
“I’m honestly not concerned with focusing on challenges, that’s not how I got here. It is the attitude that defines how I will overcome that is ultimate. Our education system is something we all need to face and improve as that leads one to art and in return empathy for others,” he says.
Ruga encourages upcoming artists to venture into different spheres such as photography, art and designing as they are lucrative.
He says there are more than enough role models across the continent one could look up to such as Nicholas Hlobo, a South African contemporary artist who creates sculptures and explores ethnicity, masculinity, and sexual identity. He too looks up to him.
Despite the global exposure and success at home, Ruga is convinced the best is yet to come.
“I always feel my big break hasn’t happened yet,” he says. That will be a story for another time.

Athi

Challenging Social Norms Through Body Art

How do you keep the crowd interested in your comedy?
Be honest, because they need to realize you are one of them.
What is your business strategy?
You need to be open to what is going on in the industry. There was a time where we were able to plan a year in advance, but we can’t do that anymore. Social media platforms are evolving so fast. You can’t drop the same images and messages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You have got to do it differently… So stay current and on top of things. It is also more than just about the technology; there are networking opportunities springing up.
What is your investment philosophy?
I am a conservative investor. I go for short-term investments rather than long-term investments. I would like to keep it to the medium range of risk.
Financial discipline means…?
Knowing when to say no, no matter how good it feels.
How do you remain financially disciplined?
I struggle a lot.
How have you diversified your investments?
I own a couple of classic cars. I also have a couple of properties.
Your most recent acquisition?
I bought a piece of property on Long Street, Cape Town.
You most regrettable financial blunder since you entered the industry?
Starting the comedy club! It was difficult making a concept like a comedy club work in a conservative space five years ago when I started.
However, it became the best decision I ever made. At the time, it was a huge investment of energy and time to get it started. On one or two occasions, I remember thinking this was too hard. It has been a very bitter-sweet thing but in the end, the advantages are huge and the disadvantages just as staggering…The theory of business is basically failure till you reach the point of success. But failure is a very important part of success. You can’t have the one without the other.
<div id="attachment_36696" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36696" class="size-medium wp-image-36696" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MG_9957-5-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Kurt Schoonraad. Photo by Casey Bertie</div>
How do you decide your fee?
My personal fee is affordable. I think it is important to stay within range. It is very easy to price yourself out of the [market]. We need to understand that the universe has not made all comedians equal. My fee is about R35,000 ($2,600) for a 45 minute-to-an hour set.
How much is it to start a comedy club and what does it entail?
More money than you know how to come up with but you figure it out. It is [just] one of those things. There was no comedy club in Cape Town yet there was one in Johannesburg. It is a no-brainer that comedy needed a home in Cape Town…I had to sell one or two classic cars and my partner also invested heavily in my business. It is at the V&amp;A Waterfront [in Cape Town] so the rent is extremely high. It was worth it because at least 30 percent of our audience is not from Africa. We would have not been able to call on that market had we not been situated where we are.
How do you strike a balance between being an entrepreneur and a comedian?
This must be the thing I am struggling with the most. By just opening up the comedy club, people assumed you have taken up the other side. In the early stages, I found out that there are very huge demands on the business side of things. I work during the day and I perform at night.
Money or fame?
Most definitely, fame.

MG_9812-5

A Serious Investment For A Funny Man

Benji Coetzee is changing the face of the freight transport industry, one truckload at a time.
She is the Chief Executive Officer of EmptyTrips, a technology that connects and matches spare capacity on vehicles to those who need goods transported.
This innovation, launched last year, has helped optimize the movement of goods on the roads and on rail, in a cost-effective way.
“The essence of the business was to try and reduce this problem called empty trips,”says Coetzee when we meet her.
Two years ago, Coetzee, a seasoned management consultant largely focusing on the industrial sector, founded SeedPitch, a niche consultancy, of which she is still the Head Strategist.
With her R2 million ($148,000) in savings, she then embarked on EmptyTrips.
According to Coetzee, transporting goods across the continent is complex and expensive. Regional integration between countries and trade facilitation are also challenges. But that’s not all.
“One of the biggest issues that they have is not that countries don’t talk to each other or allow the goods to move across the continent, but the actual transporters that move the cargo charge exorbitant rates. So that means other people won’t send their goods to other countries within Africa because it is just not feasible,” says Coetzee.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/07/10/rapid-railway-yet-slow-ports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: Rapid Railway Yet Slow Ports</a>
She took advantage of the big gap in the industry through EmptyTrips by matching a person/company with an empty cargo vehicle – with a fee that they think is reasonable – to a company which has goods that need to be moved.
“We have that better digital platform. We can negotiate better transport fees for those users. So that is the power of that platform. We bring those communities together and reduce the burden in that regard,” she says.
Like Uber and Airbnb before it, EmptyTrips is also a part of the sharing economy.
Coetzee employs six people and has had over 200 corporates test the concept and come on board.
“It has been very aggressive [since],” she says.
There has been one concern for her though; South African rail company Transnet that has not yet come on board for her venture.
“It was easier to lobby people from the trucking industry. But going into rail has not been that easy [because] you are getting into political aspects. You are working with state-owned entities,” says Coetzee.
“Give us your freight and let us try and get more freight off the road on to the rail. A lot of people underestimate how efficient rail can be, if only we could give it another chance.”
This movement of goods applies to all kinds of cargo.
“[What] the government could do in general for technology, not just my platform, is to enable the movement of mining cargo and agricultural cargo&#8230;What the government could do for us is to say ‘this platform becomes the norm for all cargo on behalf of the government’,” she says.
EmptyTrips’ integrated systems paired with smart algorithms matches demand and supply for transport across Africa, without having to get involved in customs regulations.
“Fortunately for us, we just deal with freight orders and clearing agencies so we don’t get involved in the customs issues. But once the cargo has a commercial invoice, it is matched to a transporter. It is very easy to get it across the border. That at least eases quiet a lot. It is when the transporter does not have the required documents that it begins to be quite problematic at the border,” she says.
Coetzee hopes other startup companies such as theirs would realize the importance of the resilience needed.
<blockquote>“I think it doesn’t matter how big or small your business idea or the industry is. I am trying to disrupt a huge industry. It is $8.1 trillion globally. That is huge!”</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2018/02/26/luggage-can-check/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: Luggage That Can Check Itself In?</a>
Not just resilience and persistence, proving your idea works is also crucial.
“I always say that the economy of ideas is rife. There are many people with ideas, but the idea does not matter, your proof matters. And your proof is, have you executed on it [business idea]?”
EmptyTrips is not just about ensuring that big corporations cut down on costs but it also allows small and medium enterprises to move their cargo efficiently. The impetus is smooth logistics and smart economics.
EmptyTrips could well become the Airbnb of the logistics industry, so it’s best to get on this train before it leaves.

Benji-482

The Tech Disruptor On The Move

On a cool April afternoon in Johannesburg, we are at 4th Avenue in Parkhurst – a charming suburb with stylish resto-bars, Afr0-chic boutiques and eateries spilling on to the streets – for a rather heady experience in the middle of the day.
Every tipple, every bit of trivia is crucial for this entrepreneur on the block. At the Bottega Café, which gets full on weekends and most weeknights, owner Saverio Cardillo is always present to offer customers a hands-on experience and bespoke tastings of whisky.
He pulls up a chair and gets talking animatedly about the bottles of the fermented beverage that imperviously fill the glass showcases lining all the walls of his café.
For starters, he says there are two ways to spell it – and that could be a conversation starter at any party. The Irish spell it ‘whiskey’ and the Scots ‘whisky’.
“I call it the heaven journey. It is a little point that no one knows about. Every single person that walks in here and does not know about it, they walk in and say ‘wow!’ because it is like a little onion, that you can just exfoliate all these layers,” says Cardillo.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2015/03/01/a-scientist-with-spirit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FORBES AFRICA: A Scientist With Spirit</a>
The restaurant is small and intimate but the umpteen bottles of whisky in every crevice and the cabinets behind you, make it akin to a distillery, minus the bulky barrels.
Cardillo’s love for whisky started only over eight years ago when he was first gifted a Glen Ord by one of his suppliers.
“I tasted it and it was phenomenal. That is how I got into single malts and started dabbling in all the Ireland malts&#8230;”
A South African with Italian heritage, Cardillo says he has a palate for Scottish whisky. And for this interview too, whisky-tasting is a prelude.
He gets us to taste the Pogues Irish Whiskey, which is very gentle, soft and easy. My colleague tasted the Jameson Distillery Edition with the orange, brown sugar, ginger, peach and salt taste.
As a first-time whisky-drinker, I understood that not all whisky tastes bad, thanks to Cardillo, who knows how to pick the right taste for different palates.
“This is what it’s all about. People come in, sit down and drink their whisky and they don’t get intimidated when they come to my restaurant,” he says.
The Bottega Whiskey Club, which he started in 2013, boasts of over 2,000 members, mostly from the financial sector, lured to the club through word of mouth.
“We have four types of clients – those that know nothing about whisky and we try and educate you and try and accommodate your palate. Then we get the guys that have been to Scotland and have been collecting for years and years and only buy limited editions. Then you get the guys who buy whisky to stock up their bars. Then you also get the collectors that will drink their whisky,” he says.
The restaurant has over 700 malts, which they use for their whisky-tasting events. They pair the whisky with cigars and sometimes come up with different food pairings.
Surprisingly, for a self-taught whisky expert, Cardillo says that he is not a collector.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2018/05/03/the-party-animal-in-the-lab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Party Animal In The Lab</a>
“I am not like that. I am the type that needs to know what is in that bottle. I would hate to die one day knowing that somebody is going to be drinking my collection not knowing what was in that bottle,” he says.
But for those that do like to collect their whisky as a form of investment, Cardillo believes they could earn significant returns.
“We have bottles that we bought for R500 ($40) or R600 ($49) and now they are worth a lot of money. The increase in value of the whisky depends on if the distillery closes down. If they are no longer making any more of it, then the demand for that bottle of whisky increases,” he says.
Currently, the Jameson Gold Reserve has been discontinued, so he advises whisky drinkers should buy as many as they can of it, as the value of the bottles are bound to increase by 10%-15%.
“It currently retails at R893 ($73)… So you could look at doubling your money in a couple of years. For example, the Compass Box, they made just over 5,680 bottles; I was retailing them at R2,000 ($163), but I see now three years down the line, they are auctioning them and selling them at R4,800 ($392) to R5,000 ($408),” he says.
However, a whisky club as a business is not as lucrative.
“We turn a lot of stock [from the business], but if I had to do it purely as a business, no, I would not make any money from it. Not when you consider the rentals and other expenses. The club is purely for coming to see what we have and tasting the different kinds of whisky,” says Cardillo.
There is no right or wrong way to drink whisky.
“What you like and what the next person likes are two different things. You can’t get intimidated. You are only supposed to drink the whisky with ice or you are not supposed to drink the whisky with the ice. There are so many rules that are just falling away now,” he says.
The best way to put this to the test is to pour a neat whisky in a glass and drink it. You will be able to taste all the different aromas. Thereafter, pour yourself another glass and pour a bit of water and you will be able to taste the barrel’s wood. It will become spicy as you see the whisky open up, as it becomes cloudy, and you will be able to see the oils release.
<div id="attachment_36577" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36577" class="wp-image-36577 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Saverio-656-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Saverio-656-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Saverio-656-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Saverio-656-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Saverio-656-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Saverio-656.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Saverio Cardillo. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
“This is why I say when people ask me ‘how are you supposed to drink your whisky’, I say ‘it depends entirely on your palate’,” says Cardillo.
“I once had a gentleman who walked in here the other night and he ordered a Johnnie Walker Blue Label and he drank it with cream soda. I didn’t even cringe.”
His is not limited to just tasting whisky, he also resells whisky for collectors hoping for returns on their long-held bottles.
“…[I] am a little bit sceptical about selling their collections. I sell on behalf of them, and I don’t put my name behind it and I don’t sell it using the name of Bottega. I let everyone know that it is somebody else’s collection,” he says. Cardillo receives the commission from the proceeds of the sale.
“If something goes wrong with the lid or counterfeiting in whisky or it leaks, that is my reputation at stake, and that is what I have to be careful about,” says Cardillo.
Cardillo took his hobby and turned it into a calling imparting knowledge to discerning drinkers, making him a limited edition among restaurateurs.

Saverio-663

The Whisky Whiz On How His Whisky Took Him Far

At least 110 women are raped in South Africa. Every day.
There are many similar statistics, all pointing to the same stupefying fact – that South Africa is one of the most dangerous places for girls and women.
This writer too is a survivor of an episode of violence, which – ironically – happened the evening before the country celebrated Women’s Day (August 9) in 2014.
In South Africa, a strong patriarchal mind-set, coupled with the intersection of race, gender, class and other identities, influence gender-based violence. There is also a gross underreporting of such crimes.
In the following pages, two educated young women recount how they didn’t let their own experience of violence get them down.
Samantha Smit* (name changed to protect identity) and Bukelwa Moerane reside 40 kilometers from each other, one in the affluent area of Roodepoort, and the other in Diepsloot, a township in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Their paths have never crossed, but destiny served them the same experience from hell – and they survived it.
<h2>Samantha Smit, 28</h2>
In 2013, three days after South Africa celebrated Women’s Day, Smit was drugged and raped by three male friends she had known for seven years. 
When we meet her on a warm Thursday evening in January, the neighborhood is quiet, and her home warm and secure with high security fences. Wearing an oversized t-shirt and jeans, she leads us to the pool area her father helps set up for us. 
Underneath Smit’s warm exterior is the aching heart of a woman still trying to comprehend a disturbing episode in her past. 
“When you read statistics about women who experience violence, whether it’s sexual violence, domestic abuse or interpersonal violence, I would think I was lucky to not have experienced anything before I was 18 years old. And [this state of the country] is a sad reality,” says Smit. 
What was an ordinary night out with friends ended up being her worst nightmare. 
“They asked us to come through to their flat which was nothing strange, because we have all been friends for a long time. We trusted them, we knew them and often went to each other’s houses.” 
They offered her a drink, which she didn’t know was spiked with Liquid E, a date rape drug. 
Fifteen minutes later, she felt dizzy. 
The next thing, they were stripping her in the kitchen and dragging her into the bedroom. 
“The more I put my clothes back on, the more they were taken off. They found it amusing,” she recalls. 
Smit was powerless at the time. 
“It was like a ragdoll effect. I knew it was happening, I didn’t black out, I didn’t lose consciousness. But I wasn’t able to do anything about it. I felt like I was looking into the situation. The next morning, I had a cup of coffee and left,” she tells us. 
She was in denial and did not want the stigma attached to being a victim. 
“I think a part of me knew all along, but did not want to accept it. I also felt like maybe if we don’t give it a name it won’t have the impact… Because at least you still have a little bit of power and it is not completely stripped from you,” she says. 
Her life was never to be the same again. 
“Suddenly I couldn’t stand people touching me. It would suddenly repulse me. I was startled incredibly easily,” she says. 
She suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and checked into a clinic five months after the incident. 
“It’s a difficult thing to admit to yourself… I realized I was spiralling out of control.” 
But she soon reclaimed her power by writing a letter to the three men and confronting them individually. 
Though the scar will never completely heal, counselling, and opening up to other women, has helped. 
“Every woman I opened up to had a similar story to share. That helped me a lot in breaking down the stigma.”
<h2>Bukelwa Moerane, 25</h2>
Moerane has been more vocal about her “near-death experience”. She lost her teeth trying to escape from her abductor in February last year. 
She was on her way home in a taxi one night from Maponya Mall in the township of Soweto. As she stepped out at the Bara taxi rank in Soweto, it was near empty; then out of the blue, a man driving a navy Polo came up from behind and shoved her into his vehicle. 
“What was going through my mind was ‘I don’t know if this guy has a gun behind me or a knife’. He said to me, ‘don’t do anything stupid, you will get hurt’. Instantly, as he said that, my mind stopped working,” shares Moerane. 
The abductor drove off with her, holding on tightly to her wrist. 
“He was swearing at me, and saying ‘I will rape you, I will kill you, don’t even try anything funny’!” 
Moerane started saying her last prayers thinking of her mother and four-year-old daughter. Then, she noticed the door was unlocked. 
“My heart started to beat faster. I started thinking ‘I need to get out, I need to get out, there is something I need to do’,” she says. 
The kidnapper headed down a dark road she knew. 
“I knew if he did something to me in that area, no one was going to find me. I know there are most [probably] thousands of bodies in that area not checked for. I was not going to be one of them,” says Moerane. 
She pretended to be relaxed. 
“I then looked at him, and noticed he was scared as well. His voice was shaking. I think he had gone through something and felt the need to revenge on me.” 
She was no longer frightened. 
“So if this person is scared, why should I be scared? I told myself to calm down and I started calming down, because he was holding on to my right hand at the time,” says Moerane. 
She somehow mustered the courage to jump out of the moving vehicle kicking the door until it opened. 
“He was slapping me and was trying to hold my hand. With the other hand, he was trying to drive and there was oncoming traffic.” 
Her biggest fear was for the kidnapper to grab a weapon and kill her, so she leapt out. She lost two of her front teeth, and was bruised and injured. 
“I could see my skin peeling off, and dark particles. My glasses fell off. While this car was dragging me, I don’t know for how long, I landed with my hands trying to protect my face, but I guess I was too late,” she says. 
Bleeding, she got back up and ran for her life. She tried to stop moving cars, pleading for help, but none did. At the nearest garage, she was taken to Baragwanath Hospital. 
Moerane still fears traveling by herself, but finds solace speaking out. 
She was a participant at the #NotInMyName march last year to the Union Buildings in South Africa’s capital Pretoria sparked by the death of Karabo Mokoena, the young woman allegedly stabbed 27 times by her ex-boyfriend. 
Moerane also took to Twitter to speak out against gender-based violence in the country. She posted images of her after the kidnapping and sought crowdfunding to fix her smile. 
That’s when celebrity dentist Alexander Faizi Rawhani, known as Dr Smile, helped put the smile back on her face. 
“I believe God kept me safe that time and he [the abductor] could do it again. But one thing I know is if he comes back, we go out together. I don’t go out alone. We die together this time,” says Moerane.
Physical violence against women 
• 21% of women over the age of 18 reported they had experienced violence at the hands of a partner. That’s one in five women. 
• Divorced or separated women are more likely to experience physical abuse. 
• The Eastern Cape has the highest rate of physical abuse (a whopping 32% women reporting it).
Sexual violence against women 
• 6% of women over the age of 18 reported they have experienced sexual violence. 
• 16% of divorced or separated women experienced sexual violence by a partner. 
• 10% of women living with a partner reported sexual violence against them. 
• The North West Province reported the highest rate of sexual violence (with 11.8% of women reporting). 
[Source: South Africa Demographic and Health Survey 2016]

Portrait of a Danish woman, 35 years old, with arm and hands up

The Perilous Life Of A Woman In South Africa

Don’t be fooled by his infectious smile and designer clothes; beneath his tough exterior is a layered story of depression and despair.
On a rainy autumn morning in Johannesburg in March, we meet Adrian Furstenburg in the small affluent suburb of Parkhurst.
Ironically, he is dressed in black – a symbol of grief – to recount the day when his design studio, including stock and equipment worth R70,000 ($5,800), burned and was razed to the ground.
“The damage was so painfully clear in the bright, winter morning light,” says Furstenburg.
To get to this story, it is important to start from the beginning.
Furstenburg was only four years old when he first said he wanted to become a fashion designer.
“I was at my granny’s house and we were watching a fashion show on television, and as we were watching, that is when I decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life,” says Furstenburg.
However, his father, a farmer, had, other plans – he wanted him to pursue law.
Somehow, Furstenburg found a way to persuade his father to allow him to enter a career not so distant from the fashion industry.
“It was the early 2000s and it was pretty cool to study graphic designing, so he said ‘that’s okay, I will pay for you to study graphic designing’,” he says.
In his last year at college, he specialized in textile design, which led to him crafting a career as a handbag designer.
“I think that is one of the wisest decisions that I have ever made, there are definitely no regrets,” says Furstenburg today.
As part of a college assignment, he was required to do a practical project.
“I weaved this beautiful piece of fabric and then I actually made a handbag. This project is where my passion for handbags started,” he says.
After he graduated, he started freelancing as a designer and stylist, set on his journey of one day being a fashion mogul selling swanky handbags.
But his worst day was lurking around the corner, ready to throw him into a state of melancholy.
It was June 6, 2012.
“The day isn’t etched into my memory. I recall it from a much deeper, more visceral part than that,” he says.
He and his business partner at the time, Nkululeko Msibi, of 2souls clothing, had recently set up a small studio just off Gandhi Square in central Johannesburg, where they produced every kind of clothing and accessory to keep their bank balances and ambitions afloat.
“We landed one of our biggest projects producing costumes for a major dance production. We spent hours planning, designing, sourcing, selecting, sewing, stitching. Their budget was strict and the schedule was even tighter with virtually no room for error,” says Furstenburg.
But a disaster that would discredit him and Msibi was about to blaze through their studio.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/03/01/can-burn-face-cant-burn-voice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: They Can Burn My Face, But They Can’t Burn My Voice</a>
Furstenburg was picking up materials from a supplier before heading to the studio that Wednesday morning when he received a frantic phone call from Msibi.
“Fire was really the only word I got from the conversation,” says Furstenburg.
He describes how surreal everything felt in the bright, winter morning light when he arrived at the studio.
“The thick smell of smoke hung throughout the building. Inside the studio, sooty black licks ran up the walls where the fire had devoured our machines, stock and the rails of costumes for the production,” says Furstenburg.
This was just three days before they had to deliver the costumes to their client. They were also not business savvy-enough at the time to have insurance.
“We sat sobbing on the ashy floor. The nausea swam in my stomach as the reality of the situation gained momentum in my head.”
“I called the client, trembling. The shouting started on the telephone and didn’t stop until they left our charcoal pile with a few pieces that had escaped the flames while stored in another studio,” Furstenburg recounts.
They were livid – understandably so.
“They were so outraged, because I was dealing with their dream as well. It was a costume production. They had a look of utter hatred and disgust on their faces,” he says.
They lost the clients.
“I spent two weeks in a blur of fear and guilt… Almost no one trusted us with their work and the landlord suspected that we were to blame for negligence,” says Furstenburg.
He went home, depressed for weeks, not knowing what his next move would be.
<blockquote>“I don’t have children but my business is my child. I have fought very hard for it. Seeing it die was the worst day of my life. I took about two weeks where I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do this anymore,” he says.</blockquote>
Fortunately, it was soon established that the fire was caused by old wiring. They salvaged what they could and Furstenburg decided to change his focus from production to styling &#8211; that is how he slowly managed to recover from what was his worst day.
He started from scratch, working on freelance projects making very little money.
“It was far from ideal and barely sustainable but somehow my resolve strengthened not to allow this incident to raze me permanently,” says Furstenburg.
The passion for designing handbags ignited within, in 2013, he equipped himself with business training at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship.
When he completed the three-month training, the center placed an order with him for 70 small, original-design messenger bags to be given as gifts to guests at an event held during one of FORBES AFRICA cover stars Richard Branson’s visit to South Africa.
“It could be said that someone else spotted what I had to offer before I had known exactly, and acting perhaps more in response to a veiled instruction than personal confidence at the time, I started making bags,” he says.
“Amusingly, whatever I might have lacked in self-belief was effectively offset by a desire to wow anyone and everyone and so I almost simultaneously entered the Independent Handbag Designer Awards of that year [in New York],” says Furstenburg.
It took four years of applications before he was accepted in 2016 into the All About the Logo by Guess Handbags category. He was the first South African applicant accepted – and the first to win. This opened doors for him locally and internationally.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2018/05/07/from-football-to-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Football To Fashion</a>
Furstenburg is currently working on a procurement deal with an international airline. If successful, it will be the golden game changer that takes his business to the goal of netting an annual profit of $1 million by 2019.
Six years after his worst day, Furstenburg is not without challenges. But he is continuously taking it one step at a time, ensuring that the fire he has for designing world-class handbags never burns out.
“I must admit that I get a little breathless reflecting on the trajectory that the business has followed in the last 15 months, not least because of the risks we’ve survived and the gratitude I feel to those who’ve guided and supported me,” he says.
<div id="attachment_36258" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36258" class="size-medium wp-image-36258" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Adrian-087.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Adrian Furstenburg. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>

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Burned But Not Broken; The Tale Of Fiery fashion

The former CEO of First National Bank (FNB), Michael Jordaan, is launching a new app-driven bank early next year. He says Bank Zero will not inflict exorbitant fees on consumers.
“It is possible to create a mobile bank at a much lower cost than the traditional banks… If we can stimulate a savings culture in South Africa, as well as help individuals and businesses to waste less money on bank fees, it will help the economy grow,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/11/01/banking-at-your-fingertips/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Banking At Your Fingertips</a>
Jordaan has worked in the banking sector for over 20 years and will need all his experience as he becomes a competitor of his former employers.
The idea came about three years ago, over a good bottle of wine with his co-founder Yatin Narsai, who is the former head of retail at FNB. The two were inspired by the app-driven businesses such as Uber and Airbnb.
<div id="attachment_35972" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35972" class="wp-image-35972 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/image001-1.jpg 1365w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Micheal Jordaan. Photo Provided.</div>
“We hope to solve many of the everyday problems that individuals and businesses still have when making payments or investments,” says Jordaan.
They spent the last year applying for a banking licence with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). This year, they are working on integrating the bank into the South African payments system.
In 2014, Jordaan launched MonteGray Capital to invest in disruptive start-ups. Now, his own business is set to shake up the banking industry.
“It has been an incredible privilege to start with a blank sheet of paper and develop a bank from first principles. We will have no legacy technology and no reliance on income streams that should not exist, like electronic banking fees. The functionality of the app will be far richer than any bank we have seen locally or abroad,” he says.
Though, like most banks, Bank Zero will have an app and a card, it will not have a branch.
“Branches are old-fashioned. If you could design a bank from scratch you would never think of doing it around paper and bricks and mortar. Just like WhatsApp and Facebook don’t have branches, the bank of the future will be mobile&#8230;” he says.
In addition to South Africa’s big four banks – FNB, Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank – Adrian Gore’s Discovery is launching a bank later this year. Is there room in South Africa for another bank?
“South Africa has 33 banks and the sector is highly sophisticated and competitive. The fact that [South Africa’s] bank fees are high in international comparative terms means that there is still a lot of room to lift the competitive intensity,” says Jordaan.
To differentiate itself, Bank Zero will only cater to those with smartphones and tablets.
Jordaan is intent on making his bank technologically innovative. He learned this lesson the hard way when he was chairman of Mxit. The messaging app was blown out of the water by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
“It is a powerful lesson why businesses must build for the future rather than hang on to the past. That is why Bank Zero will be built for smartphones and tablets, rather than for dumb phones.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/homepage/2017/06/27/cash-falling-fashion-will-disappear-forever/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Cash is falling out of fashion – will it disappear forever?</a>
“In a few years the only phones that will be sold will be smartphones. Today there are entry-level smartphones available for less than $40 but this could still halve in three years,” he says.
If Jordaan had his way, in the near future, brick-and-mortar banks will be as redundant as those dumb phones.

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Banking On Technology: New Mobile Bank Set To Launch

The gentle sea breeze, the glint of classic cars, swaying sugarcane plantations, and horses trotting around – while this might seem like the description of a picture postcard, this is the everyday life of Viju Gowreesunkur, an entrepreneur in the island nation of Mauritius.
This sugarcane planter, who has a vintage car collection that is the pride of the island, also knows a thing or two about horses. He grew up with them, and today, even owns a few.
Mauritius occupies a significant place in Africa’s horse industry. The country boasts an average racing population of 450 horses, and has an important equestrian link with South Africa. All of the nation’s racehorse imports – 150 every year – come from South Africa.
“A lot of South African jockeys ride in Mauritius. The traveling time to Mauritius is only three hours by air. The horses adapt well with our climate. A lot of South Africans are immigrating to Mauritius, and horse racing can be a main social activity for the expatriates,” sums up Gowreesunkur.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2013/08/01/racing-into-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Racing Into History</a>
In South Africa, the horseracing industry contributes R2.71 billion ($226 million) annually to its GDP. Efforts are on to ramp up those numbers.
And as with the expatriates taking to horse racing in Mauritius, here too, it’s no longer the pastime of only the privileged few.
“These days, horse racing is no longer the domain of royalty, and with this shift came the glorious possibility that anything is possible and that the richest races could be won just as easily by a working man as by a multi-millionaire,” says Adrian Todd, Managing Director of SA Equine Health and Protocols NPC, in South Africa.
Mick Goss, the CEO of Summerhill Stud in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, says while owning racehorses can be an aspirational endeavor, it can also arise from a deep-seated connectivity with animals in general, or horses in particular.
“The result is that racehorses are owned by people from across the social and economic spectra, from the wealthy to the determined,” says Goss. In its 40th year, Summerhill Stud is one of the country’s top horse breeders, and it has produced several champion racehorses.
<div id="attachment_35865" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35865" class="wp-image-35865 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Approximate annual cost to maintain a horse on a styud farm in South Africa: $5,000. Photo supplied.</div>
Goss had humble beginnings starting the stud farm. He came from a family of generations of horsemen and was previously a lawyer, when after 17 years, he gave up law to start out with nothing in the horse business but “a deep-seated will to make it work”.
“I inherited the horse ‘disease’, for which there is no known vaccine,” he jests.
Today, his farm runs a school of management excellence in equine studies, the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, he says, and the results have been “extraordinary”.
Goss says South Africa is set for a record year.
“2018 will be a game-changing year,” he says, with respect to the efforts now being made to rejig the racing and breeding industries “with substantial investments towards the normalization of export protocols with international trading partners”.
There is significant demand for South Africa-based horses in the international market for their quality and affordability. A case in point being that in the past, at the $10 million Dubai World Cup, the richest day in international thoroughbred racing held in March every year, South African-trained horses have won at many levels.
“We have produced winners at the highest level in almost all of the major racing jurisdictions of the world. It is little surprise that our horses are as sought -after as they are internationally, more so as they cost a fraction of their counterparts from other major racehorse-producing countries,” says Goss.
But there are challenges, including strict export restrictions, quarantine controls and prevalence of the African Horse Sickness (AHS).
“The current onerous export restrictions make it difficult for the racing and breeding industry to expand and very hard for our horses to travel and compete internationally,” says Todd.
The country has been severely curtailed in its ability to export horses due to AHS.
South African horses have to endure a quarantine of up to six months before they reach their country of destination.
“Compare this with the delivery of 30 days of horses acquired in countries like Australia and New Zealand, destined for South Africa,” says Goss. “From this, you can deduce the obstacles South African horse people face in the export of their products.”
AHS is a vector-borne viral disease, and has affected South African horse exports since the 1960s.
Goss says he has only suffered one loss to AHS in 40 years on his farm, but says, if properly managed, the losses can be avoided.
“Proliferation of game farms around the country has meant concentrations of zebra in close proximity to horse farms, which has exacerbated the problem,” says Goss.
“The reason is many zebras are carriers of the virus, though they have an inbuilt immunity against it, and while the disease itself is not contagious, it can be carried from one animal to another by a vector.”
Thankfully, there have been breakthroughs in its detection.
“The latest technologies mean that we are able to detect AHS within a matter of hours nowadays and with the quarantine protocols we now have in place, we can guarantee we are unlikely ever to export infected horses,” says Goss.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2013/11/01/love-mountain-hate-horse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ: Love The Mountain Hate The Horse</a>
“With new scientific developments and a new Polymerase Chain Reaction test to detect AHS within hours, South Africa is busy working towards a much shorter period of quarantine of possibly 16 days. This will obviously open the door to the world market and allow the entire horse industry to grow to its full potential,” says Todd.
This test has been developed by Professor Alan Guthrie and colleagues at the Faculty of Veterinary Science’s Equine Research Centre in the University of Pretoria, which has improved the lab diagnosis of AHS by increasing the sensitivity of detection and shortening the time required for the diagnosis.
Equine experts like Todd are optimistic the strides taken by the industry will make this year more successful for the horse industry.
Currently, horses are exported from Cape Town’s Kenilworth Racecourse, which serves as a quarantine, transit and export station. The horses are required to serve a three-month quarantine period in Mauritius on top of the three weeks already spent in quarantine in Cape Town, before going on to their final destination.
“The opening of export protocols will allow the industry to unlock a potential billion rand market. This in turn will lead to an expansion of the industry and a significant increase in rural employment…,” says Todd.
The platforms and opportunities are plenty.
In December, FORBES AFRICA visited the Turffontein Racecourse in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg for the glitzy Gauteng Sansui Summer Cup. Dating back 128 years, and along with the Durban July and the Sun Met in Cape Town, it’s one of the big three races on the South African horse racing calendar, with a prize money of R1.25 million ($104,373) up for grabs.
In South Africa, horse-lovers come from all walks of life.
“From rural communities who use horses for transport, to families who buy ponies for their children to ride for fun, to show jumpers and wealthy [South African] businessmen like Dr Richard Maponya who loves horseracing,” elaborates Peter Gibson, the CEO of Racing South Africa.
Prices range greatly depending on the breed and what it will be used for, but buying a thoroughbred racehorse could set you back by an average of over R300,000 ($25,000).
Furthermore, it takes R50,000 ($4,000) to R60,000 ($5,000) a year to maintain a horse on a stud farm.
“Thoroughbred studs are cash guzzlers, and you need to surround yourself with people that are capable of contributing towards the capital needs of the business by way of their support as clients, as well as developing strong relationships with the financial institutions that support you,” says Goss.
“The horse breeding and racing industries by their very nature are among the most labor-intensive activities in South Africa, and according to a recent audit of the industry by Grant Thornton, it employs in excess of 100,000 people, either directly or in those businesses that provide services to racing and breeding.”
Hopefully, in the years to come, the “cash guzzlers” will repay the favor, in leaps and bounds.

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The South African Horse Industry: A Potential Billion Rand Market

To make it as a comedian you need to be prepared for long hours of traveling, little sleep and even less food.
South African comedian Tshireletso Phasha, popularly known as TT Phasha, is a radio co-host on YFM’s midday show Krunch Time. In the evenings and on weekends, he performs at clubs and corporate events.
“Comedy cannot yet pay all my bills. I sometimes do gigs to get exposure but there is no landlord who accepts exposure as a payment method,” he says.
Phasha has been in the comedy industry for three years and has performed alongside some of the best comedians in the country, such as the Goliath and Goliath trio (Jason, Donovan and Nicholas), Sifiso Nene and Skhumbuzo ‘Skhumba’ Hlophe. He has also appeared on Comedy Central’s show for up-and-coming stand-up comedians, Savanna Newcomer Showcase. Yet, with all this exposure, he is still trying to make ends meet.
As an only child growing up in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, Phasha never realized comedy could be a full-time career.
“I’ve always thought I was a funny guy but I never thought it would be a full-time career. As soon as I found out that there are people making a living off it, I’ve wanted to become one more than anything else in the world,” he says.
<div id="attachment_35670" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35670" class=" wp-image-35670" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/TT-Phasha-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="360" />TT Phasha (Photo supplied)</div>
His comedy career started at Comikazi, an open mic competition at Parker’s Comedy and Jive, in Montecasino, Johannesburg, after a friend suggested he do so.
“I felt I was as good as some of the best comedians in the country and I just wanted to be counted as one of them,” he says.
It has not been easy for Phasha. He still struggles to book decent gigs and he also started to doubt his talent.
When he started as a comedian, Phasha was living in Mpumalanga, a province in northeastern South Africa.
“Getting to shows was a mission. I had to plan days in advance. Then getting stage time was a challenge because I didn’t know anybody.
“I moved to Johannesburg but I still don’t have a car… I still worry if my jokes are funny but now at least I get stage time,” he says.
The fear of not being funny enough is something that haunts him every day.
“If I’m not funny then it ruins everything, doesn’t it?”
He remembers one gig where the audience wasn’t laughing at his jokes.
“I was at a club and I noticed that everyone was just walking around and not paying attention to me. So, I started telling them that I don’t care if they’re laughing or not, because I’m getting paid either way. I told them that they better laugh otherwise they’re wasting their own money. They started laughing.”
Phasha’s biggest battle right now is with promoters.
“I think the biggest mistake I make in the industry is allowing promoters to pay me peanuts. It’s always a challenge knowing how much to charge people, since we provide a service. But it’s about knowing what you’re worth,” he says.
Earning meagre amounts has not changed his mind about being a comedian. He says believing in himself is his greatest achievement.
“You need to work to earn a name for yourself. I can&#8217;t charge much yet, because people don&#8217;t know me. It’s a great industry to be in. One of the toughest to crack, but the most fulfilling once you see all your dreams and ambitions come true. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would be doing it,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2014/10/01/just-guy-mic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Riaad Moosa &#8211; Just A Guy With A Mic</a>
One of South Africa’s most well-known comedians, Mongezi ‘Tol A$$ Mo’ Mahlangu, has faced similar problems. He says promoters tend to negotiate lesser fees for him.
“They tend to undervalue us. We always have to negotiate our own rates, unlike musicians. I wish they would take us as seriously as they take them, considering the intellectual process that goes into preparing our work,” says Mahlangu.
Mahlangu made his break in 2010 when he was featured on the reality television series Opening Guys, in which Kagiso Lediga mentored emerging comedians.
He has come a long way since then. He is mostly known for his appearances on numerous television series, including Mo Love on Vuzu, in which he starred with his wife, Mome. He also does stand-up internationally.
Mahlangu has achieved success in a short space of time. He can make R50,000 ($4,186) per one-man show, but most of his income comes from endorsements and television shows. He recently bought a house in Sandton, one of Johannesburg’s most affluent suburbs, proving that comedy can be lucrative.
<div id="attachment_35671" style="width: 311px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35671" class=" wp-image-35671" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Basketmouth-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="301" height="452" />Basketmouth (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
Bright Okpocha, better known by his stage name Basketmouth, is one of Africa’s best comedians but it was a hard slog to make a name for himself. The Nigerian, from Lagos, says he started with a one-man show which would earn him one naira per set. He now makes between $7,000 and $11,000 per month. In February last year, he became the first African to headline the Wembley Arena in London.
“Ever since I was 20 years old, I have never done a nine-to-five job. I don’t know what that feels like and I wish I did so I could appreciate what I do more,” he says.
Although Okpocha leaves his fans giggling, he is the one laughing all the way to the bank.
“I know that I just need to ensure that I get that one show for the month to ensure that my budget is met… I can proudly say that one gig sustains me for the month,” he says.
However, he is not always in the mood to crack jokes.
“Most people think that comedians are always happy and that we don’t live a normal life, but the truth of the matter is that we are like every other person out there. We also have ups and downs and mood swings like everyone. The pressure for us is too much because of the expectations that everyone has. I can’t meet up to the demands [that people have], so I do my very best to stay private as much as I can,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2014/10/01/hate-mail-death-stage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Simmi Areff &#8211; Hate Mail And Death On Stage</a>
Another established comedian can be found in an unlikely place – the lecture halls of Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein. Hailing from Lesotho, Tshepo ‘Masapo’ Mpiti prefers to keep his act clean.
“I don&#8217;t use profanity and I avoid derogatory topics that may leave people offended,” says Mpiti.
<div id="attachment_35669" style="width: 461px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35669" class=" wp-image-35669" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Tshepo-415-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="451" height="299" />Tshepo ‘Masapo’ Mpiti (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
His rate was $125 for a 15-minute gig at clubs. As a master of ceremonies he would charge between $500 and $1,000. After being nominated at last year’s Savanna Comics’ Choice Awards for the pan-African category, he is being booked for more gigs and is able to ask for more money.
He, however, says that Lesotho did not always see value in its comedians.
“My country did not have an accepting atmosphere towards comedy, mainly because there has never been anyone who really put it out there. Because I work in South Africa, I got to witness the magnitude in which comedy can be turned into a lucrative career. I pushed myself for seven years, then I started to get calls from restaurants and pubs for shows in my country. I even received a contract for six months to perform at one of the local malls,” says Mpiti.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/06/01/south-african-can-smell/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Trevor Noah &#8211; &#8216;I&#8217;m A South African, You Can Smell It On Me&#8217;</a>
Mpiti spends a lot of time traveling between South Africa and Lesotho, which can be tiresome, but is grateful that most of the money he charges goes straight into his pocket. He also encourages emerging comedians to be firm when negotiating their rates.
“Payment for logistics, like transportation and accommodation, are not included… If, as a comedian, you still perform for food, alcohol and exposure then you might as well drive a taxi,” he says.
Who knows, there may be a taxi driver rumbling along the roads of Africa, waiting for their chance to crack a joke &#8211; and be paid for it.

The Serious Business Of Being Funny

What is the one investment you wish you had made?
One of the best investments anyone can make is to invest in him or herself. There are the formal qualifications, yes, but in my experience the real important one is the informal personal development throughout one’s life. It takes effort and discipline. There are so many excellent books that I have read, and courses that I have attended later in my life, on strategy, innovation, leadership, selling and persuasion, presenting, time management, and a host of other soft skills that I wish I could have made earlier in my life.
What are your investment tips for 2018? 
The biggest tip of all is to first create the capacity to invest. Open a gap between what comes in and what goes out, and the tip here is not to focus on the income side, which is often, over the short term, not so much within your control, but rather on limiting expenses and waste, which is much more controllable. Try to find your happiness outside of consumption, instead of trying to buy bliss.  There is no independence quite as important as living within your means. Then, focus on building a fund that will preserve your lifestyle for life. This is a firewall that should ensure that you are not one day old and poor.
What do you invest in and why?
My investments have mostly been in boring, diversified unit trusts in retirement fund vehicles. But over time it starts accumulating when compound growth starts doing its magic. Luckily I am not much of a wheels person, I have only replaced cars twice in my life, although I do have a motorbike and have made some sizeable ‘investments’ into road and mountain bikes. I have never sold a property in which we have lived, so we have three now, renting out two, but from an investment perspective it has performed very poorly. I believe the house in which you live should rather be seen as a lifestyle possession, not an investment. I do ‘invest’ quite a bit in the liquid asset category called wine – but find that it does not last that long in the cellar before it is consumed. Another investment that has eroded quite a bit of our family’s lifestyle preservation fund is travel and experiences.  I would like to believe these are investments with internal value – these adventures bond families and shape character.
What investments have worked best for you?
One of the best things one can do is to make full use of retirement funds and other tax free vehicles. The state does not tax you when you make the investment, there is no tax on interest, dividends or capital gains, no estate duty, and some of the withdrawals might even be tax free. It is also difficult to touch it, which is a good thing; it protects you from your short term gratification weaknesses.
What investment strategy do you recommend? 
It is often said that the best investment is to pay off debt. I agree, but only after you have first made contributions to hedge against catastrophes and after you have made investments in a diversified portfolio of quality financial assets. I have seen too many people who have paid off debt first, throughout their lives, and ended up with still nothing in an investment portfolio in their fifties. Then make sure that the risk-return trade-off of your portfolio allows you to sleep well.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/homepage/2018/03/01/money-dion-shango/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Me &amp; My Money &#8211; Dion Shango</a>

Author: Melitta Ngalonkulu

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA