What does the latest Grammy award mean to you?
It means so much. The American music industry is the biggest and most important in the world. For them to vote our album Shaka Zulu Revisited the Best World Music Album of 2017, making it our fifth Grammy award, says to us that we&#8217;re still doing it right. We&#8217;re still at the top of what we do. Sometimes people ask if winning another Grammy is boring. What? Our group has been doing what we do for over 50 years. So many groups come and go, never to be heard from again. We don&#8217;t want to be that type of group. We plan to be around for decades more.
How do you continue to produce timeless music?
The first thing is to love what you do. We have never lost the love of what we sing. Then, we know it needs to be special. We have this opportunity to share our singing with the world. We must make the recordings important and beautiful. We know we represent our country of South Africa. Every album is like the Olympics for us. We want to make our country proud.
What is the message behind your music? 
Peace, love and harmony. Our message has never changed. We want to bring people together through music. We remember that 20 years ago we were asked to perform in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the first time. That place was still having terrible problems. We thought ‘hey, our country had terrible problems but we changed. We started to respect each other and work together. Sure, it&#8217;s not perfect yet but it&#8217;s getting there’. We thought it was important to sing for people in Belfast to show them that peace and love were the true way to live together. This is what our music is for.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2015/03/01/glittering-prizes-soft-shuffle-feet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Glittering Prizes To The Soft Shuffle Of Feet</a>
What was the reason behind honoring founding member Joseph Shabalala with Shaka Zulu Revisited?
Joseph taught us everything we know and Ladysmith Black Mambazo continues to be a success because of him. When he retired in 2014 he handed the group to his four sons, who originally joined the group in 1993. He said: &#8220;Boys, it is in your hands now. Take care of it and keep the respect.&#8221; Since 2017 was the 30th Anniversary of the great Shaka Zulu album, we wanted to re-record it to honor what Joseph has accomplished over the past 30 years&#8230; We care for each other and everyone&#8217;s family. We also fully believe in our mission of spreading peace and love through music.
You have maintained a unique African sound without compromise. How?
It&#8217;s who we are. It&#8217;s what Joseph Shabalala wanted his group to be. Staying true to culture; to history; to the origins of this music. We don&#8217;t change with the times, incorporate new styles. Sure, we like to work with other people and integrate our style of singing with others, however, when it comes to our music, we stay true to our roots.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/03/02/forbes-five-hip-hops-wealthiest-artists-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop&#8217;s Wealthiest Artists 2018</a>
What does the future look like for Ladysmith Black Mambazo?
More albums, more concert touring, more singing for peace, love and harmony and dare we say it, more Grammy awards!
Do you believe musicians can change the world with music?
Absolutely, music knows no boundaries, nor borders. Music brings people together. Music heals, music helps. Music flows through all societies and links us as one world.

7 Questions With… Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Gugulethu, the urban sprawl 15kms from Cape Town in South Africa, is a vibrant township pulsating with the beats of Africa.
Mzoli’s, the popular shisa nyama here that barbecues meat to mouth-watering perfection, is almost synonymous with the township, attracting droves of locals and tourists to Gugulethu.
On weekends particularly, the action spills on to the streets with vendors selling anything from slogan t-shirts to recycled glasses of ciders and beers, to hats and tattoos.
The ‘church of meat’, as Mzoli’s is often referred to, famously attracts over a thousand people every day, as they enjoy their braai and drinks in a convivial setting to heart-thumping music. It’s not just the grilled meats that’s the attraction here, but the tantalizing sauces used to barbecue them.
“They call us the ‘church of meat’ because instead of being at church, [people] are here,” says Sisanda Mangele, the outlet’s operations manager. Her father, Mzoli Ngcawuzele, owns the place.
Mzoli’s started in 1998 when they were selling tripe in the back of the garage in their home. Today, they have grown from butchery to bastion of meat, turning over R10 million (about $710,000) annually with 20 employees.
<div id="attachment_35599" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35599" class=" wp-image-35599" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Sisanda-Mangele_JC-3-ccopy-300x200.jpg" alt="Sisanda Mangele Mzolis" width="401" height="267" />Sisanda Mangele (Photo by Jay Caboz)</div>
“We had four freezers for our stock. We grew from that and raised capital and we also received a loan. We didn’t realize that this could be a tourist destination. It started with the locals, then it spread out. People started coming in with their associates, colleagues, friends and family,” says Mangele.
Mzoli’s is a magnet not just for ravenous tourists; they are also a case study for aspiring entrepreneurs hungry for ideas.
“People come here for advice when they are about to open their businesses. We advise them on passion, and investing in something they are interested in,” says Mangele.
Part of the counsel they give is that nothing comes easy, even now.
“The fluctuating rand affects us as well as unemployment. With unemployment on the rise, crime has increased but there are people watching out for them,” says Mangele. Despite the odds, it’s the perfect example of how business can thrive in a township.
There is a growing demand to maximize the potential of South Africa&#8217;s township economies estimated to be worth billions, although there are few records to quantify the amount of money moving within the industry.
Moipone Molotsi, Director at the Centre for Small Business Development (CSBD) at the University of Johannesburg, says business is booming especially among the new generation, but the shortcomings are many.
“It’s just that it is not captured for people to understand what is happening in the townships. You have people that have branched into clothing manufacturing, retail, and information technology. When you go into the township, you see a lot of people manufacturing products for major companies but they are undocumented,” stresses Molotsi.
<div id="attachment_35600" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35600" class=" wp-image-35600" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Moipone-Molotsi-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="267" />Moipone Molotsi (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
Molotsi recommends an innovative and competitive mindset in order to make it in this market. But she says that’s not always the case.
“You still have the masses who are managing the business because it was passed on to them, so they are not business-minded hence we see a number of those businesses running down,” she says.
Township enterprises fail to take care of their businesses, one of the reasons they fail, so they need to up their game.
“The market understands itself, they do not want to go into a shop that is smelly and is not well taken care of, and the service is bad. That is why you see them moving onto the shops in the suburbs, because they demand a service which is lacking in most of shops in the township,” she says.
The township is involved in diverse economic activities, ranging from spaza shops, street vendors, hair salons, shebeens and minibus taxis, to mechanical services, manufacturing, burial societies, stokvels and childcare services. These are largely micro enterprises with low capital and a low skills base, however, a proper business model is needed, says Molotsi.
The Alexandra and Soweto townships in the Gauteng province of South Africa are no different when it comes to being examples of thriving informal economies: common sights are vendors selling everything from fruit to fat cakes.
“Whether they understand the business or not, it does not matter for them [entrepreneurs], and that is why their businesses are not always a success. But if people were to come together and work as a team, things would be different,” says Molotsi.
Aspiring entrepreneurs should make a point of asking themselves how they intend making a profit with their business model and if the model is not already in existence. The government has taken strides in ensuring growth in this market, but the industry seems to be at a halt.
“The government is doing far much more to support entrepreneurs and the township in general. You have a lot of counterparts out of the country that do not have the same programs in place. The heart of the country is in the right place, but you could say that they lack implementation. In as much as there is training and mentorship programs, entrepreneurs are still not making progress. The question we should be asking ourselves is why?” says Molotsi.
She reckons the country should redirect its focus.
“We are more focused on being quantity-based rather than being quality-based. We have not prioritized as a nation what sectors we should be focused on developing; like how China was with and their technology enterprises [sector]. They focused on that sector and they invested more in that market,” she says.
Another trend is that some businesses do not have financial records, deliberately, because they do not want to account to authorities how much they are making.
“This becomes a problem when they need to access funding,” she says.
Township entrepreneurs also have issues owning properties. Fanny Mokoena, an entrepreneur in the Meadowlands suburb of Johannesburg, testifies to this.
Mokoena is owner of a tavern, restaurant, hospitality school, and a petrol station. She says in her years of being in business, most of her challenges have been at the petrol station.
“I have been running the petrol station for 23 years and as of now, I don’t have a property lease agreement. I can’t even count the number of times I have been in and out of the City of Joburg Property Company, I have really been struggling,” she attests.
“How am I expected to run a successful business without a proper lease agreement? Who will be willing to invest in your business when you do not have the proper paperwork? Which insurance company will come and insure my business, because I am like a squatter?” asks Mokoena.
<div id="attachment_35601" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35601" class=" wp-image-35601" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Fanny-Mokoena-e1521018682549-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="267" />Fanny Mokoena (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
Her challenges do not end there. She says government policy changes as well as lack of confidence in black-owned enterprise have caused her businesses to spiral.
“The government’s policy changes have affected the catering company. Business is not as much as it used to be. The government barely requires catering services for their meetings.
“People as well have no confidence in township catering companies to cater for their weddings, they would rather go to the suburbs. I feel like they have been disappointed so much maybe that is why black people lack confidence in their businesses,” she says.
But she can only do her bit by delivering services to the best of her ability, and hopes other entrepreneurs in the townships are doing the same.
The lack of adequate business support from the government, lease agreement problems as well as minimal support from community members have made Mokoena lose faith in the term ‘township economy’.
“When ‘township economy’ was launched, I was there. All I know I was part of the group that was going around preaching ‘township economy’, but I never got to experience it. I don’t know what that is,” she says.
Mokoena believes these are post-apartheid terms, such as Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), that lack substance and affirmative action.
“They don’t mean anything. When these programs are being launched, they call crowds, but when it is time for implementation, we don’t see the results,” says Mokoena.
In the bigger scheme of things, most businesses in the township have had very little contribution to South Africa’s economy. This is because they are historically disadvantaged by their location and have had no manufacturing capacities, so they had a minimal contribution to the development of productive sectors.
The glimmer of hope is the private sector, with banks like Absa, supporting the market. In July, they announced R10.5 million (about $745,000) to uplift spaza shops into sustainable businesses that can compete with major retailers in the mainstream economy.
“Absa’s support will not only see the sustainable establishment of spaza shops but it is envisaged to create jobs and help these spaza shops net triple times more profit as they have in the past. The project has already seen transformed spazas record a 300% increase in airtime sales,” says Tshepo Seeta, Founder and Managing Director of eSpaza Sum.
Experts agree on the lack of recognition of the importance of social organization, embracement of social capital and the hand-holding approach in supporting township enterprises. The one-size-fits-all enterprise development strategies have further alienated entrepreneurial initiatives in the townships in the past.
Gauteng’s MEC of Finance, Barbara Creecy, reported in her 2017 budget speech the government spent R600 million (about $42 million) to boost the economy in 2014, which they then increased to R6 billion (about $425 million) last year, having 2,800 businesses benefiting directly. More needs to be done.
The purpose of most township businesses used to be about addressing the needs of the community whilst also providing the families in them basic needs. However, that has changed.
Enterprises like Mzoli’s and resourceful entrepreneurs like Mokoena have the desire to consistently deliver services successfully no matter the odds to wider markets, and they have proven they can.

Successes Amid The Squatters

On the day FORBES AFRICA meets Gavin Mkhabela, the sun is shining as bright as he had hoped his future in business would be when he resigned from the banking sector. He thought he would be the person that would clean every working space across Africa, but little did he know that it would be his bank account that would be cleaned out.
At a business park in Midrand, 30kms north of Johannesburg, Mkhabela is energetic and full of life, unlike six years ago when he was broke and depressed.
“All I did was to wake up, eat and sleep again,” he says.
It started in the basement of his work place, where he had spent four hours in his car contemplating his hasty resignation.
“I like to believe that I am a very creative person and the corporate industry tends to be stagnant at times. There are certain ideas which you may not implement because they are just not ready for them. My lifestyle was also inflated but not in accordance with my income at the time,” he says.
Soon after his resignation in 2011, Mkhabela received his pension payout which he used to start his cleaning company GavCare.
“I was excited; it was my first business. I used my provident fund to start the business,” he says.
Mkhabela  used his credit cards to finance the new business.
“My fiancé and I bought everything new. We even bought a new carpet machine that was being phased out. We were just spending,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/08/28/slaves-debt-oh-owe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Slaves To Debt: Oh, What We Owe!</a>
Things started well for the young entrepreneur after he received contracts with corporate giants, such as Standard Bank and Nampak, and a few local law firms.
In 2012, he sold 40% of his business. Then, in 2013, he was chosen for a business mentorship program in Germany, which was in partnership with the government’s National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
“When I came back from the month-long mentorship program in Germany, everyone was celebrating me. They would say ‘you have made it in life’,” he says.
But his worst days were lurking around the corner.
“Out of excitement, I called my business partner to tell her that my mentor had decided to inject R2 million ($169,000) into our business, and he would donate equipment for our business.”
Soon after, his elation turned to despair.
On a cold Friday morning his business partner pulled out.
“We were at our detergent store in Tembisa when she proposed that she would like to pull out of the business… I still ran everything via my credit card and had overdrafts,” he says.
To make matters worse, GavCare was in a cash flow crisis.
“Our company’s financial controls were a mess, there was money coming into the business but more money went out. We also had more people working for us than we actually needed. Our operational costs far outweighed our income,” says Mkhabela.
He was also living beyond his means.
“My biggest mistake was to continue living a lifestyle that I lived when I was working in the corporate world. Most of my provident fund payout went to buying the company’s equipment and keeping the business afloat. I started skipping my monthly repayments, but even worse started avoiding calls from creditors,” he says.
“I got a lot of judgements under my name and was eventually blacklisted by creditors. We took business loans and I extended my credit facilities on my personal capacity in an effort to keep the business going for two years. I also went to loan sharks, an even more [costly] mistake that almost put my life at risk. It was all in an effort to survive and help my financial situation every month the loan amounts from the loan sharks will increase as I couldn’t settle them.”
He then fell into depression.
“One by one, I kept losing things and getting more in the red. I got depressed&#8230; My relationship with my fiancé also started to suffer, because I had no financial contribution to the relationship. You know when the man loses the ability and the power to provide, you drive your woman away,” he says.
Mkhabela then got the dreaded call.
“All I did for months was to sleep, wake, eat and sleep again. Then the repossessor called me,” he says. “They took my [VW Golf] GTI, my furniture and every other thing I had worked so hard for. Luckily my house was paid up,” he says.
“It was at that point that I realized that I needed to get up and do something,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2017/12/08/south-african-billionaires-fortune-plunges-2-billion-day-amid-accounting-scandal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: South African Billionaire&#8217;s Fortune Plunges More Than $2 Billion In A Day Amid Accounting Scandal</a>
Even though he was down, he was not out of ideas.
“I bounced back in 2014, when I decided to become a financial advisor so that I could save others from being in the same situation as me,” he says.
Mkhabela says he now has over a thousand clients. In 2016, he published his book, Financial Planning 4 What? The book addresses the problems experienced by many regarding personal finance.
“I wrote the book on financial planning and started developing an interest in educating people about financial management from a personal and business finance point of view. It stems from my whole experience because all that was needed was proper financial controls and proper planning,” says Mkhabela.
Looking back, he wishes he did things differently with his business and his business partner.
“I did a lot of introspection in the manner in which I ran things, because I studied a business course,” says Mkhabela.
Mkhabela’s worst day was a lesson that can’t be taught in lecture halls. It is also a lesson he’ll never forget.

‘I Started Avoiding Calls From Creditors’

What are the current challenges of the commodities sector in Africa?
It is very challenging at the moment, some of the business sectors have been beaten down over the last few years. That is a challenge but it is also an opportunity. A place like Dubai can really work with Africa to give access to global markets for a lot of the commodity centers and that is what DMCC does because we work with various sectors which are not just of importance to South Africa but across sub-Saharan Africa. For instance we are talking about precious metals, we are talking about diamonds, we are talking about various agricultural products.  A lot of countries have been primarily dependent on the production of these commodities and commodity prices have not necessarily kept pace over the last few years, so the challenge is how do you get more of the supply chain value accrued to the local economies, rather than to be a primary exporter and producer of commodities?
How do you remain a disruptor in different markets? 
What DMCC does in all the markets it is involved in times, is that if a market place exists we better it, and if a market place doesn’t exist then we create it. When I say create market places, it is about creating the hard and soft infrastructure.
How do you leverage Dubai as a global hub for trading? 
Dubai has been a trade entrapper for many centuries and DMCC was actually set up to create trade flows through Dubai and that is exactly what we do. We are constantly looking at other commodity sectors where we could add value. Between precious metals and diamonds, the annual trade in the United Arab Emirates is about $75 billion. Today 60% of the world’s tea is imported out of Dubai. So that is how Dubai and DMCC act as a disruptor. Creating more efficient supply chains, creating market places that work for the benefit of the sellers as well as the buyers, and giving access to global markets through Dubai.
What do you think about blockchain and cryptocurrency?
It has a lot of usage. There are a lot of concepts coming out using blockchain technology. We are working on a few ourselves, but that will add trust and simplify transactions over a period of time. There is tremendous potential… but we have yet to see any big adoption of blockchain.
How do you see fintech changing the landscape in Africa and your region?
A couple of years ago, we commissioned a report on trade. One of the findings was the key factors that would influence trade for the next 10 years. We found that digitalization could bring in another 350 billion businesses and most of them will be small businesses. That can only be aided by fintech solutions and digitalization. If that promise is met, then you can have an additional $23 trillion coming into global trade for the next 10 years.

‘Dubai Can Really Work With Africa’

What brings you to Johannesburg?
I am here to raise awareness about Expo 2020 that takes place in Dubai, whether it is from a business participation perspective, nations for their impact people providing innovations, or solutions that we can showcase to the world at this Expo. This is the first world expo in our region, so the developing world hasn’t had an easier access of showcasing their developments to the world.
What is the current link between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Africa?
Historically, there have been a lot of ties between the UAE and Africa. The UAE is at the center of Africa and Asia. Between these two regions, you have some of the world’s largest growing economies and the largest growing societies. What we want to make sure is that we capitalize on that relationship, to bring value for both parties and the world.
There is an initiative, called Expo Live. It is a $100 million fund that supports innovation around mobility, sustainability and opportunity, with a social impact component. It supports grant recipients with an opportunity for unlocking potential for people and communities to be able to succeed in access to funding, in access to education, in access to markets, supporting entrepreneurs, empowering women and empowering youth. All of these are access to opportunities. …So far we have 45 recipients that have been grantees of Expo Live. From the 45, 14 operate or are from Africa.
You’ve been instrumental in regional business development and integration, where do you see Africa positioned in terms of global business?
There is huge potential in Africa. African nations have done a tremendous job in really leveraging their assets. I am not just talking about its natural resources, I am also talking about the educated young population. From a geographical perspective as well as historical relationship between Africa and the UAE, we want to make sure that this expo provides opportunities. In 2017 we have awarded about $3 billion in contracts – construction and non-construction related. On top of that we will have 180 nations participating in our expo. These nations will need help in terms of design, construction and content and exhibits. On top of that we will have 25 million visits to our expo during a six-month period. We will need all kinds of services. The expo is a huge opportunity for businesses that already have the capability, in terms of resources, brain power and passion, to be able to deliver to the world.
What attracted you to Expo 2020?
We live in a world that is so connected we can no longer say ‘it is not my problem, it does not affect me’. That is not right. Sooner or later it will affect everyone. That is why the social impact component is critical.
Each nation should have its own voice. It doesn’t matter how big your country is, in terms of land or the economy. If we really want to solve the world’s pressing challenges, everyone has to be on equal footing. Everyone has a voice towards that solution.
Do you see African cities attracting global events, like Expo 2020?
Already in South Africa you have an ability to host; you’ve had the 2010 World Cup that had so much energy, the rest of the world watching wanted to be here and be a part of it. For any major event there are certain criteria that you need. You need a solid infrastructure, you need a strong hospitality sector, in terms of hotels services and food and beverages. From a communications perspective, you need to be able to tell the stories. You need a safe environment. You need support from the business community and from the people of the community itself. There are a lot of African nations that have made great strides in all of these areas.

‘We Can No Longer Say It Is Not My Problem’

Thuso Mbedu was nominated for the 45th International Emmy Awards in New York in November, for her role as Winnie in Is&#8217;thunzi. She did not win, but the actress, who is also an entrepreneur, still wowed in her blue Gert-Johan Coetzee dress. We spoke to her weeks before the ceremony.
<ol>
<li> Did you ever think you would be nominated for an Emmy?</li>
</ol>
One dreams of such accolades but never thinks they are attainable. In my wildest dreams, I would attain such in my mid-30s or 40s, if I am lucky. This nomination was truly unexpected but it was a pleasant and most humbling surprise.
<ol start="2">
<li> Have you planned your speech?</li>
</ol>
Yes, I have and simply because I want to thank all those who supported and believed in me. I need to make sure I emphasize hard work and the pursuit of excellence is never in vain. This is just the beginning of great things. Even if I don’t bring the award home, I will still use the very same speech to thank everybody. The speech will not change; just the platform and time. I truly am grateful for the opportunity.
<ol start="3">
<li> If you don’t win…</li>
</ol>
I’m going to keep at it. I can only push harder and get better. Again, this is just the beginning. I will work with my colleagues to ensure the global audience stays aware we have talent to be reckoned with. International productions must know when they come to our country to shoot their productions there is a great talent pool they can choose from. They can use us to tell our stories and we are also available in aiding to tell the global stories because we are more than capable. I am very excited about the future of acting in South Africa.
<ol start="4">
<li> What we don’t know about you…</li>
</ol>
I love dogs.  I’m a dreamer — with a very vivid imagination. I am a creative artist whose mind is always working overtime. I see possibilities and opportunities in almost everything. I’m very sensitive to what others go through. I once forced my housemates to go star-gazing. It wasn’t anything fancy because we cannot afford the fancy things yet. I drove them to the rooftop of a mall and we put our fleece blankets on the ground and looked at the stars.
<ol start="5">
<li> Where to from here?</li>
</ol>
I will definitely continue creating my own work. I want to produce films and series that will be consumed globally. It’s not just about me. I have to work hard in order to attain my ultimate goal which is to open an orphanage or an arts academy where kids will be taken care of. I want to reach a place of such influence that people with money will want to sponsor the upbringing of a child even if they do not want to adopt a child. The basic foundations are integral. I want to ensure that as many kids as space and finances will allow will have those foundations of love, support, education.
<ol start="6">
<li> What roles would you want to play?</li>
</ol>
I have three ‘ideal’ roles. Viola Davis (Annalise Keating) in How to Get Away with Murder, Taraji P. Henson (Cookie Lyon) in Empire, and Heath Ledger (Joker) in The Dark Knight. The aforementioned characters differ in immense ways and they are characters that would certainly challenge me as an artist. I always welcome challenges as they result in growth. I know for a fact that with each of these characters I will find myself questioning my ability to act at some point because they are so complex.
<ol start="7">
<li> On the set of my first role I was feeling…</li>
</ol>
Excited but very prepared. I had to deliver and did not want to drop the ball. I was the only new face in a set of veterans but they were very welcoming and the director was very open in terms of what was to be expected of me. I spent most of my free time getting knowledge from the veterans and it is knowledge I use and pass on to others.

7 Questions With… Thuso Mbedu

They called her a crazy lady with the secret potion. The secret made her R7 million ($518,000) a year.
It’s a Thursday afternoon on a sunny winter’s day, and we meet Relebohile Moeng at her offices in Irene, south of Pretoria, South Africa’s capital.
One side of the room is painted shocking lime, which makes it fit for the lady who made lemonade out of lemons, after an accident that left her with over a 150 stitches on her face.
Her skin formed keloid and plastic surgery was a far-fetched dream.
“The doctors immediately saw this [keloid] and they recommended plastic surgery so that I don’t have the scars on my face. They were saying that they can look horrible on one’s face. They said if I have surgery that will remove the epidermis, so it doesn’t form an ugly scab. I didn’t have the money at the time,” says Moeng.
Today, she wears the scars pretty well.
Moeng searched for something that would help with the scarring, but that later became her lifeline when all hope was lost.
“Never ever have I imagined that this would become a business opportunity. The penny really dropped when we went to Tshwane municipality because our lights had been switched off and two of our cars had been repossessed,” she says.
She was retrenched. Her husband Fabian, who holds a cost and accounting degree, was merely making enough income at the time to sustain both of them. They had applied for indigent services with the municipality but were rejected and they told her to sell their house in an affluent suburb and move to the township.
“’We knew that was not an option, and we had to do something fast,” she says, laughing.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/06/fashion-operation-theater/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Fashion in The Operation Theater?</a>
She came across Moroccan cold-pressed Argan oil, a plant oil produced from the kernels of the Argania spinosa tree endemic to North Africa.
She used to import the oil to heal her scars, but that oil slowly became her livelihood.
Desperate for assistance, she went to the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) in Pretoria.
“I would go there, get dressed up and I would tell them that I know that there are services for young women and the youth. They kept calling me the lady with the magic potion,” says Moeng, who holds a master’s degree in business management.
They sent her away until they had no other choice but to help her. SEDA tested the oil and found that there was 96% of Omega 3, 6 and 9 in the cold-pressed Argan oil.
“The laboratory was also astounded because they test a lot of things from a lot of companies but they were very impressed with the Omega in the oil,” says Moeng.
That was just the beginning.
With an initial capital of R10,000 ($730), the couple started Afri-berry, a naturally-based skin and hair care products line. The products include coconut oil, Moroccan oil, raw shea butter and Jamaican black castor oil.
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The business started with just the two of them and now has 58 employees in a span of seven years. She is the head of operations and the creative director of the business and her husband is CEO.
They persevered and sampled their products on everyone, including the security guard.
From pain, came creativity – and cash.

The Scars That Took Her Far

<ol>
<li>You grew up facing superstition about albinism and having people treat you differently, how did that form your world view? </li>
</ol>
I never had a linear world view, because I had to experience the contrast of being home and fully accepted for who I am to leaving the sanctum of the household and family nucleus and walking out into a world that misunderstood my difference.
I would do everything possible to hide my difference. I would not apply sunscreen and wear a hat, because I didn’t want to feel that I was different, so that would mean I would allow my skin to burn, in order to play in the sun like other children. I would hide the fact that I had a bad eyesight, that would result in me performing poorly at school, as I could not see what was on the board. It took a message from my parents that &#8216;if you don’t embrace your difference&#8217;, it could be harmful to me; that embracing diversity and being human isn’t a bad thing.
<ol start="2">
<li>You have taken a sabbatical from law to focus on modeling – would law not be a more powerful platform to address things wrong in the world? </li>
</ol>
The interesting thing about law and modeling is they both deal with representation. It is the business of representation so that means carry more than yourself; you carry more people. When I put myself out there I carry far more images than just one. I am a woman, I am a woman with albinism, I am a South African, I am a black person, so that means everything I do it carries thousands of people. The more I mature in this industry, the more I understand the fullness of the images that I carry. I really try to do what I can do to build on all those images and shape narratives that create a positive and empowering perception of all of my images.
<ol start="3">
<li>You feature in next year’s Pirelli Calendar; as part of an all-black cast retelling the story of Alice in Wonderland&#8230;</li>
</ol>
The Pirelli Calendar spoke mostly about the importance of representation in storytelling and Alice in Wonderland was basically a template for that message. To really be brought into significance. When representation comes into play, such as this, you basically say that possibilities belong to everyone.
<ol start="4">
<li>Do you think projects like this are an indication the world is moving towards celebrating African beauty?</li>
</ol>
Beauty should not be confined and labeled as African beauty as if it were a niche. I just believe beauty is the celebration of an image and what it means for the world now is becoming more diverse. Initially there was one conventional beauty type bombarded by the media and now there is a lot that is challenging that conventional beauty. 
<ol start="5">
<li>You are the first black South African ever to feature in the Pirelli Calendar&#8230; </li>
</ol>
There was nothing about my character that was particular to albinism but it so happened that the person who played the character had albinism. I think that is an important message that there can be a message of inclusion, diversity and integration. You can accept difference without side-lining it. The calendar just did that for me. It said difference can be embraced and not side-lined.
<ol start="6">
<li>Tell us about working with photographer Tim Walker for the project?</li>
</ol>
He is the type of photographer that lends you his eyes to see his work. He really understands that impact art has on cultural development and in his mind the world was already created&#8230; I loved working with him.
<ol start="7">
<li>What was it like working with global icons like Whoopi Goldberg for the calendar? </li>
</ol>
Working with her warmed my heart, because here was this woman who I used to watch in movies like Sarafina, Sister Act. I admired her resilience and authenticity and just before we did our shot, I held those hands and I had to tell her that. So working with her was moving personally because she was a person I really respected.

7 Questions With… Thando Hopa

She used to be a constant fixture at her late uncle’s tailor shop.
Today, Mariama Mounir Camara is a fashion designer with an eponymous label and is the founder of an African handmade textiles and accessories company in New York.
“I would go and collect pieces of fabrics cut from [my uncle’s] customer’s clothes to dress my doll. I had made the doll out of papaya stem. I also always wanted my dress to be different from that of my friends during the holidays,” says Camara.
Guinea-born Camara is the fifth of eight children, from the Nalu tribe in the region of Boke. She went to the United States to visit her sister Tigui Mounir Camara, now founder of the Tigui Mining Group.
“My parents are hard workers who gave a lot to our community and country. I used to be in Senegal and I moved to New York in 2001 with only $100 in my pocket,” says Camara.
But she decided to stay on after she found love and got married.
“Like every other person visiting the US, I was excited to be in a land where people can make their dreams a reality with hard work. The transition was enormous because I was coming from Dakar, Senegal. New York City was bigger and faster-paced. Yet, I loved it because it is one of the fashion capitals of the world. Even though I was intimidated, I knew that staying here was a great opportunity to become free and become who I wanted to be,” she says.
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The family fashion bug was difficult to fend off.
“I always loved fashion without even knowing it was called fashion. I mean I grew up in Guinea, I had no idea what that word stood for then. My mother’s family was also very passionate about making prints. I would sit and watch them make fabrics. I really wanted to join them in the tie-dying process but I couldn&#8217;t because I was too young.”
It was after she moved to Senegal she finally understood the true essence of fashion. She founded Mariama Fashion Production in 2012.
“Seeing the success of women tie-dyers of Kindia, Guinea, and traveling to several African countries made me realize other artisans needed similar opportunities. I also realized African textile needed to be revamped into something fresher, with new colors and silhouettes, to compete with other textiles and be worn daily as every other print. I wanted to make African handmade textile accessible to the design world while creating sustainable jobs for local artisans in Africa and preserving their artisanal work,” says Camara.
Today, she boasts of being featured on Dream, Girl, a film on female entrepreneurs in leadership.
“My biggest achievement is being able to take my childhood passion and turn it into a career. Through hard work, I am able to continue the legacy of my family.”
She works with international brands and designers such as Tory Burch, Lemlem by supermodel Liya Kebede, and EDUN.
“We receive a lot of demand from African designers all over the world and really respect that because we now know our work is impacting the next generation of African designers,” she says.
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Camara is also a humanitarian. She co-founded, with her sister Aissata Camara, There Is No Limit Foundation, to promote the dignity and security of women and girls, through entrepreneurship, education, and elimination of gender-based violence.
The organization has helped over 20,800 people in Guinea, Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
“I am proud of the work. Mostly for being able to provide small interest-free loans for groups of 300 women in Kindia through the Association of Women Tie-Dyers project. I am also thrilled my younger sister Aissata Camara and I became the first people to introduce the work of Guinean artisans to the international market during New York Fashion Week in 2013 through our collaboration with designer Tory Burch. This collaboration was a huge success and attracted international media; it also resulted in First Lady Michelle Obama wearing our prints,” she says.
As Camara focuses on growing her brand, she encourages aspiring entrepreneurs from Africa trying to make it abroad to stretch their horizons.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from; what’s most important is where you expect to be. Dream big; believe in yourselves, and know the only limitations are those set by you.”
Camara carries Africa abroad.

From $100 To Obama

At a time when Kenya was focused on developing its infrastructure, Lillian Wambui Chege was more concerned about developing the youth.
“Working with our youth also teaches me the impossible does not exist. Every day, we see youth from difficult situations driving change in their own lives, transforming local economies and turning corporations into billion-rand businesses. I have seen young people go from having very little job prospects to climbing the corporate ladder becoming successful entrepreneurs,” she says.
Chege is the co-owner of CareerBox, a company that recruits, trains and places the youth in jobs; her solution to Africa’s problems.
“I’ve always been committed to contributing to Africa’s transformational agenda,” says Chege, who was raised in a small town west of Nairobi, Kijabe, and went to school at Rift Valley Academy (RVA), an American school.
“Although RVA was a boarding school, I was a day scholar and had the privilege of growing up with my sisters and parents. Since my mother is no longer with us, I take comfort in the fact I could see her every day during my formative years,” she says.
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She completed school and RVA was her ticket to America, where she attended Calvin College, a liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated in political science.
“After college, I moved to New York City and had a series of jobs from working in a law firm, woman’s reproductive health advocacy, accounting and ultimately ended up in philanthropy working for the Rockefeller Foundation,” she says.
It was at the Rockefeller Foundation her career developing the youth shaped.
“I co-designed an initiative called Digital Jobs Africa. This was an effort to leverage the proliferation of ICT infrastructure on the continent to connect young people to jobs.”
This was a tough time for her country of birth.
“At the time our African countries were – and continue to – investing billions in infrastructure development and the continent played host to the fastest-growing economies. Unfortunately, the youth unemployment was at crisis levels and was threatening the security of our countries,” she says.
“Kenya was experiencing post-election violence, events fuelled by high unemployment and disenfranchized youth who had the education, skills and will to work but no jobs,” says Chege.
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The foundation’s offices were in the country and the events were poised to undo decades of investments and contributions into the country.
“We spent an incredible amount of time and money accessing was best to intervene. We conducted extensive landscape analysis to identify key sectors that had the ability to absorb large amounts of youth into the workforce with relatively short training. We landed on the business process outsourcing sectors and decided to intervene in six countries, including Kenya and South Africa,” she says.
The countries were selected based on the government’s commitment, private sector investment and willingness of the youth to work.
CareerBox takes on youth from disadvantaged communities.
“Our innovative model has been successful. The government recognized by the government as part of the National Development Plan (NDP). We are on target to reach our goal of impacting 100,000 by 2020,” she says.
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Chege’s role with CareerBox is to come up with expansion strategies and she sources capital for their headquarters in Durban, South Africa, and offices in Nairobi with 50 employees. Through support from international donors, they intend to relaunch in Soweto so they can transform the township and contribute to the government’s township revitalization process.
Chege travels to South Africa regularly because she believes more investments are coming to the country.
“Globalization and the growth of our economies have enabled many like me to be able to work across borders. It is also the diaspora that is also helping drive an incredible amount to business to the continent. I consider myself blessed to straddle multiple cultures, disciplines, and markets. This enables me to drive high-impact work that serves not only those with access but also more importantly, those who are marginalized,” she says.
Chege says the support of her team has enabled her to keep empowering the youth.
“As a result of this co-dependency, we communicate and meet frequently. They need my skills as much as I need theirs. This respectful way of working enables me to work and deliver on my responsibilities, most internationally-driven,” says Chege.

‘The Impossible Does Not Exist’

<a href="https://www.printulu.co.za/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-34109" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/printulu-logo-300x88.png" alt="" width="300" height="88" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/printulu-logo-300x88.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/printulu-logo.png 350w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>
In this electronic world, many say print is dead. But Alexander Knieps, the founder of online printing company, Printulu, echoing the words of famous author Mark Twain, says reports of this death are greatly exaggerated.
“If you look at how this industry is developing, I don’t think we are moving into a paperless industry, at least not in the next 50 years. Afterwards, I don’t know. It is all about what channel is out there and whether it is affordable,” says Knieps.
We meet Knieps at an industrial park in Modderfontein, east of Johannesburg. This is where business cards, posters, postcards, and flyers are printed for thousands of companies, media houses and coffee shops across South Africa. In a matter of minutes, a pile of paper flows from the printer.
On this spring day, the sun shines brightly and the sky is clear. The tranquillity is shaken by the loud rattle of paper being printed.
“In our age of technology, when you are studying, nobody thinks, ‘ooh, let me go into paper’. I think it is a very rare thing,” says Knieps.
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Knieps, who is born and bred in Germany, founded Johannesburg-based Printulu last year. The name is a combination of the words print and Zulu (a South African language). He studied business at EBS Business School in Germany and got his master’s degree at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.
Starting the business has been far from plain sailing.
“The first couple of months, we were completely bootstrapped. You get your first clients, you show some nice traction, and then, in the beginning of the year, we raised some funds, which were a couple of million rands, which are enough to last for the next two years,” he says.
Investors are hard to find.
“South Africa is not the easiest place to raise money. There also isn’t much money in the market because of the current economic climate. [When] it comes to online printing, people just look at the industry itself; they don’t think how you could invest deeper. There aren’t many investors and it takes a while to close deals [compared to] anywhere else in the world,” he says.
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Knieps says the future for paper printing is mass production.
“We are batching up all these smaller orders and print them in bulk and that is how you can disrupt the market. Hence, you see a shift from offline to online in the industry,” he says.
He calls on other entrepreneurs to get with the times.
“The industry is very inefficient in a way that there is a lot of competitive pressure. There are thousands of printers in Gauteng who are operating with an archaic business model.  You have inefficiency on the one side and macroeconomic pressure on the other. That is why a lot of printers are closing down even though we are growing strongly at the moment. If you see those components, it actually makes people a lot more price sensitive and that actually helps the business to scale,” he says.
Print dead? Not in the world of Knieps.

Print Money?

Chris Bishop, the Managing Editor of FORBES AFRICA, calls on those who want to be mentored by him to come forward.
The mentee challenge comes after Bishop was on CNBC Africa’s new show The Mentorship Challenge with Marc Wainer.
Bishop has over 20 years of experience in journalism and comes from a lineage of journalists.
“My father gave me some unintended mentoring when I was young. First thing in the morning, when he drove me to school, he would eagerly shake his hands as he couldn’t wait to get to work,” says Bishop.
Having learnt from his father and work mentor John Spavin who contributed greatly towards his career, Bishop is dedicating 30 hours of his time to pass the baton to the willing participants, on his lessons.
“When I was a young journalist a lot of the senior journalist wouldn’t help you. They would rather cut their arm off than help you because they felt that you ‘were coming here to take my job, you are competition for me, so rather go and sort yourself out’… So I swore that when I get to the other side of the fence I’m not going to be like them,” he says.
“I always say to my young journalists, if you are lucky you will meet someone to help you. If you are really lucky you will meet three people to help you by the age of 30,” says Bishop.
On the show, Bishop speaks about the freedom of the press in South Africa.
“I think in this in this country it is still fairly robust and still fairly much alive. And every day that we go to work we must make sure that is the case. I have worked in 10 to 15 countries across the continent where press freedom is virtually non–existent. Here, if I am persistent, I can still get the health minister, I can still get the minister of trade and industry, to front up, give me an interview and answer the questions that we have,” he says.
“I can still go and doorstep somebody, no policeman is going to hit me around the head for doing it. That is the sort of freedom we have. You may call the radio station and say all sort of nonsense about the president and nobody is going to follow you home, nobody is going to threaten your children or something.”
Even with all his years of experience in journalism, Bishop still looks forward to interviewing Vladimir Putin.
“I know it seems like a hard one, but he always seems like the heart of darkness and everyone seems terrified of him, but I would like to know what makes him tick and look him in the eye,” he says.
To register as a mentee go to <a href="http://www.mentorshipchallenge.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Mentorship Challenge</a>

Chris-Bishop_JC

Forbes Africa’s Editor Calls For Mentees

It’s a chilly Friday morning at at Lynnwood Bridge Shopping center in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital – ideal weather to talk to Dale Mazon, the entrepreneur who makes his money selling hot cups of coffee.
We are at TriBeCa Standard, one of Mazon’s 125 coffee shops in South Africa that make around $75 million a year.
The shop is buzzing and the waiters, in beige chinos, checkered shirts and navy cardigans, are kept on their toes. As we walk towards Mazon, he has a smile on his face. But it’s a smile that didn’t come easily; it was earned through blood, sweat and sleepless nights.
“I used to sleep in the shop. I had no waiter. I couldn’t afford to hire a waiter. So, I just kept doing it on my own and I kept my own tips,” chuckles Mazon, as he recalls how he started TriBeCa with his Co-Founder Martin Fitzgerald.
Mazon, from Seattle, in the United States, moved to South Africa after completing his studies at a hotel school in Switzerland.
“The coffee was shockingly bad,” is what he thought of the first cup he tasted in South Africa. That unbearable coffee triggered his dream to open his own coffee shop.
“I went in full force. I was 24 at the time. I decided that I was going to come into South Africa and make it an adventure. When I moved here I only had $300, so I had nothing. I started very simple. A friend of mine I worked with at hotel school borrowed $50,000 from his brother and that is how we started the business and everything was built from there,” says Mazon.
Though his journey has not been easy, he has managed his coffee shop business for 21 years and, since 2000, has helped retail giant Woolworths run their coffee shops.
The sustainability manager for TriBeCa, Matthew Carter, says they currently roast 120 tons of Arabica coffee a month. The bulk of their coffee comes from Tanzania, Ethiopia and Indonesia.
“We struggle a little bit with trying to get coffee out of the country on time. With Ethiopia, for instance, they had some political crises,” says Carter.
The industry in South Africa has boomed since the coffee drinkers shifted their tastes from instant to more authentic coffee.
“A lot of people are switching on to what we would call real coffee. They are also more interested in the story of the coffee and it has no longer just become a beverage,” he says.
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He adds that there is an increased consumption in gourmet coffee, non-espresso drinks such as cold brew, and brews from single-cup machines.
“Single capsules, such as Nespresso, are taking the lead because almost everyone has a little espresso machine at home,” says Carter.
It seems Mazon got into the right business at the right time.

Brewing A Coffee Empire

For many, a morning doesn’t start until they’ve had a cup of coffee. The hot beverage has become a ritual, in homes and businesses, across the continent. But not just in Africa; the global coffee market is worth an estimated $100 billion and is projected to grow at 4.7% per year up to 2019.
In South Africa, hidden in the hills of the KwaZulu-Natal province, overlooking Port Edward is Beaver Creek Coffee Estate. This is where 10 to 15 tons of coffee is produced annually, on 14 hectares of land. The farm imports a further 35 to 40 tons, with a large portion of that coming from Africa.
“There is a growing demand for the high-end, specialty coffee. People are looking for coffee that is distinct in its character and that they know exactly where it is grown. This region is one of the best to grow coffee in the world, a combination of latitude, altitude, and ocean currents create ideal climatic conditions to produce world-class coffee,” says Dylan Cumming, a farmer, roaster, barista and Managing Director of the Arabica coffee producing family business, Beaver Creek.
Established in 1984 with just four trees, Beaver Creek has gone through three generations. The founders Ed Cumming and Doug Tupper planted the first crop in 1986 and three years later they harvested the first few kilograms of Arabica coffee. Now the farm boasts more than 60,000 trees, and brews R12 million ($915,000) annually.
“People are looking to try coffee from a specific origin which is of high quality in terms of its taste. We grow and harvest from three cultivars – SL28, Catuai and Catimor F6 – with each day’s harvest and cultivar being tracked from field to roast with our lot tracking system,” says Cumming.
Producing coffee is a lengthy process, says Cumming. They collect the fruit from February to October and start selling once the coffee completes the curing process, which includes fermentation, drying, hulling and grading.
<div id="attachment_33952" style="width: 308px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33952" class=" wp-image-33952" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Dylan-Cumming-198x300.jpg" alt="" width="298" height="452" />Dylan Cumming, the Managing Director of Beaver Creek Coffee Estate. (Photo supplied)</div>
Beaver Creek keeps it old school.
“A lot of the equipment that we use is over 50 years old. The technology that was used then is still very efficient. We continue to develop our processes and methods around these machines to maintain the quality that our trees produce,” says Cumming.
The farm supplies retailers and coffee shops around South Africa, as well as exports to countries, such as Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US), Denmark and Germany.
Around 800 kilometers down the east coast of South Africa, in Port Elizabeth, is another family business, Masterton’s Coffee and Tea Specialists. The founder of Masterton’s, Ronald John, known as Jock Masterton, was an immigrant from Scotland who came to South Africa in the 1920s. He served as an officer in the Black Watch regiment during the First World War.
According to his grandson, and director of the roastery, Ryler Masterton, a fellow officer from South Africa was the reason for Ronald’s immigration.
“He then worked as assistant manager on the farm Three Rivers in Vereeniging, where he met his wife Marjorie, who at the time was visiting her uncle, the farm manager,” he says.
The couple relocated to his wife’s hometown, Port Elizabeth. In pursuit of being an entrepreneur Ronald went to Sri Lanka [formerly Ceylon] to study tea tasting. When he returned to Port Elizabeth, he opened the first tea and coffee house in the city center. Months later, the roastery moved to where they have been for the last 93 years.
“Both the global and South African coffee industry has grown and developed in leaps and bounds, since we first opened our doors. We like to think of coffee as not just a product, but an experience. Global trends and developing coffee cultures, as people want to know more about coffee, experience greater varieties and enjoy the different experiences, have really been the driving factors in this rapidly growing industry,” says Masterton.
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Finding the right blend can make all the difference in these tough economic times.
“Someone once jokingly told me that there are only three consumer items that are recession-proof: alcohol, tobacco and coffee. Although not entirely accurate, we have fortunately found the coffee market to be quite resilient in times of economic hardship. In most cases the consumer is prepared to continue to buy their preferred brand of coffee during these tough times. It seems that the value associated with a good coffee experience can outweigh the financial cost,” he says.
Technology has been the catalyst for change in the industry.
“Aided by the advance in technology and greatly improved supply chains, more people want a good coffee experience, and now have access to it. This has all seen many new entrants to the market in its various sectors, further accelerating the industry’s growth, value and reach, especially over the last 10 years,” he says.
<div id="attachment_33953" style="width: 322px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33953" class=" wp-image-33953" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Ryler-Masterton-243x300.jpg" alt="" width="312" height="385" />Ryler Masterton of Masterton&#8217;s Coffee and Tea Specialists. (Photo supplied)</div>
Despite the new technology, Masterton’s continues to roast Arabica coffee using the same process his grandfather used almost 100 years ago.
“We use sight, sound and smell to bring out the best characteristics of every coffee bean, for our customers’ ultimate enjoyment. However, sourcing superior quality green beans is a big part of it. But it’s the roasting process itself that has the biggest impact on the end product, and where experience really comes into play,” says Masterton.
They import green coffee beans using brokers. Currently, Masterton’s has two stores in Port Elizabeth – a roastery and a coffee equipment store, which they also use as a barista training center. Masterton’s has 38 employees and they plan to expand.
Masterton believes the quality of African coffee has improved as the market has increased.
“There most definitely is significant growth potential on the African continent for the many sectors of the coffee industry. We’ve seen an increase in the volumes of green coffee being grown and exported from many African countries, but most importantly here, we’ve also noted an increase in the quality of this coffee,” he says.
“The global development of a coffee culture, with a greater demand for higher quality coffees, has trickled down to the source, with farmers, co-operations and others involved in the supply chain realizing that a quality focused approach can only be beneficial, both financially and reputational, while also boosting their respective countries’ coffee industries, Growth Domestic Production (GDP) and foreign investments received.”
In Africa, there is a growing appetite for good quality coffee.
“This is especially evident in the younger generations and the upwardly mobile, who are viewing a quality coffee experience, high-end coffee shops and boutique retailers as points of interest and social hubs respectively. Organizations, such as the Specialty Coffee Association of Southern Africa, the African Fine Coffees Association, and the East African Fine Coffees Association, are all playing their part in developing the industry, making it more accessible to new entrants and the consumer alike, while inspiring passion within those already involved in the industry. Although there may be the occasional wobble in the market, the trend is positive and Africa has much to look forward to when it comes to great coffee,” he says.
Africa’s coffee exports increased 1.5%, to 22.3 million 60-kilogram bags in 2016 from 22 million bags in 2015, according to Gilberto Biacuana, Research Analyst: Commodities at the Land &amp; Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa.
In 2016, the major African exporters by volume were Uganda (15.9%), Ethiopia (13.5%), Ivory Coast (6.7%), Tanzania (4.1%) and Kenya (3.3%). Uganda exported $371.7 million in roasted or decaffeinated coffee husks and skins, and coffee substitutes. Ethiopia exported $725.4 million.
“The global production of coffee comprises of Arabica and Robusta coffees, which include Colombian milds, Brazilian naturals and other milds. Global coffee production is dominated by Arabica, which accounts for 63% of total global coffee production in 2016/17,” says Biacuana.
Brazil, with 28.8% of volume, and Vietnam, with 23% of volume, were the major global exporters last year. Coffee prices are expected to remain under pressure due to increased output from the two countries.
“Global coffee prices have seen a sustained downward trend since November 2016, influenced by abundant global supplies. With the exception of Robusta coffee, global coffee prices were generally lower compared to a year ago,” says Biacuana.
Coffee production is sensitive to weather patterns, such as drought and frost, which affects the amount and quality of beans produced.
“The 2104 drought in Brazil led to a global shortage 6.4 million 60kg bags, which caused the Arabica futures in the New York Stock Exchange to increase by approximately 50%,” he says.
Consumption however has been rising in countries such as India, China, Latin America and Africa due to the rapid growth of the middle class and the high pace of urbanization.
The International Coffee Organization estimates that the global demand for coffee will increase by 175 million 60kg bags of coffee by 2020.
The next time you are enjoying a cup of coffee, remember that it is a commodity driving growth in Africa.

Author: Melitta Ngalonkulu

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA