Catherine Masitsa is a very optimistic woman. She knows she will be in business until the end of time.
“I know people will still be getting married when Jesus comes!” she says.
A trained veterinarian with an MBA in Strategic Marketing, Masitsa is a feisty entrepreneur making a decent living from Kenya’s growing wedding industry that is said to contribute KSh70 billion ($797 million) to the Kenyan economy and expected to grow to KSh100 billion ($1.14 billion) by 2015.
These figures are not captured in any government documents or financial projections. Kenya’s wedding industry is a gold mine made up of multiple smaller suppliers like caterers, wedding consultants, dress-makers, beauty consultants, photographers, DJs, honeymoon planners et al. While the industry as a whole represents a lot of money, each of the component parts is much smaller, some smaller than the others.
These smaller composite suppliers can be very local and likely will be small and privately-owned, traditionally the types of businesses that do not necessarily report financial information to any agency other than the Kenya Revenue Authority. This is in sharp contrast to larger industries, comprised of companies that make public their profits making it easier to find information. Secondly, many of the smaller components like caterers, DJs, photographers, printers of invitation cards, also do other events that are not necessarily bridal events.
Masitsa’s own story runs in tandem with Kenya’s growing wedding industry. She had never dreamt she would be a part of it when growing up in rural Kenya. At the height of her veterinary career when she was in her mid-20s, she got bored of her job, quit and went into publishing without any knowledge of the business. In 2000, she started Going Out magazine with only KSh45,000 ($500) and it is only when she was in the publishing business that she learnt how advertisers in Kenya operate.
“Advertisers wanted publishers to nail their market. They expected you to know what your target audience was doing every hour of the day. The Going Out audience was wide and I noticed a gap in niche magazines,” she says.
After her own wedding in 2003, Masitsa was inspired to start a wedding magazine – Samantha’s Bridal Wedding, which was the first bridal publication in Kenya. Eleven years later, it has become a major player in East Africa’s wedding market, evolving into a wedding media and lifestyle company.
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The Show That Changed It All
A turning point in Masitsa’s entrepreneurial journey was in 2008 when Kenya went through post-election violence.
“After publishing Going Out for eight years, I had to shut it down. That year, we had no advertising and we couldn’t publish for about six months. We used to give the magazine for free. You can’t publish when you have no adverts. I simply lost the passion,” she says. The same year, she also shut down another publication she owned – Business Woman.
Magazines are very capital-intensive and Masitsa found it impossible to repay her bank loan.
She had a KSh7 million ($80,000) bank loan and a KSh3 million ($34,000) overdraft. Overnight, the bank loaded the KSh7 million on the overdraft and she now had a debt of KSh10 million ($114,000) to repay.
“They say in war, you pick the soldiers who look like they can survive. That is how I stopped publishing the two magazines and picked Samantha’s Bridal because it was more promising,” she says.
Masitsa put her house on the property market so she could clear the bank debt. She ended up paying the bank KSh32 million ($364,000).
“After I found a buyer for my house, my documents at the Ministry of Lands suddenly disappeared. For eight months I had a buyer with money but I had no documents and the bank interest was increasing.” One day she went to the Ministry office and started crying. The officer took pity on her and in two days her documents were found. She sold the house for KSh28 million ($318,000) and was left with a balance of KSh4 million ($45,532). What saved her were the real estate investments she had.
“Then, I was in my 30s. The good thing about being in your 30s is that you have a very huge appetite for risk. If you don’t utilize your 30s, you will never take any risks. Now in my 40s, I take more calculated risks.” In the same year (2008), she launched a TV show called Samantha’s Bridal and that changed her fortunes for the better.
Masitsa realized that if she was not on television, people would never know her magazine existed. This is what motivated her to get into producing television shows centered on weddings.
“TV stations pay me for the cost of production. I specialize in producing good TV lifestyle content because there are so many things that go on in weddings. When you watch the show, you can tell about the fashion trends in Kenya, youth issues, finance, music etc. It is a window to society. They are telling their story through an event.”
According to a survey commissioned by Samantha’s Bridal, over 28,000 couples get married in Kenya annually in a formal wedding ceremony, an increase of up to 10% over the last five years. On average, 26 businesses are involved in the staging of one standard wedding.
“The annual average spend per wedding is KSh800,000 ($9,000) to KSh1.2 million ($13,700) making the wedding expense the biggest single expenditure other than buying a house and a car for most people,” says Masitsa. She says these are just conservative numbers.
“I have seen a wedding worth KSh200 million ($2.3 million) and another that cost only KSh7,000 ($80). Weddings are recession-proof. Couples will stop at nothing to show the world the true meaning behind ‘what’s love got to do with it!’ when it comes to the wedding budget,” she says.
In Kenya, couples are engaged for an average of 16 to 17 months before marriage. During that time, on a national average, couples spend about KSh1.3 billion ($14.8 million) on engagement rings, wedding rings and other jewelry, KSh7 billion ($80 million) on gowns, suits and tuxedos, flower girl outfits and bridesmaids’ dresses, dresses for guests, and KSh2 billion ($22.7 million) on honeymoons.
The survey also revealed that annually, engaged and newlyweds spend millions of shillings on new home purchases.
“They are responsible for a big segment of the wedding registry gifts and furniture industry. In addition, each couple spends an average of KSh700,000 ($8,000) on fitting out their homes with furniture and household electrical appliances,” says Masitsa.
In East Africa, Ugandans and Tanzanians spend more than Kenyans. This spend is driven by the fact that weddings are community affairs and families spend a lot of money on their children. It is very normal for them to hold a fundraiser, while in Kenya, the couple foots most of the bills.
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Fairytale Weddings
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Those who can spend, spare no expense on lavish weddings. There are couples who fly in Bollywood stars to perform at their weddings so as to create a personalized experience for their guests. A bride recently flew in the Cake Boss to bake her cake.
There is a couple who spent KSh200 million ($2.3 million) for an eight-day wedding.
“For all those days, they had an open bar and French champagne for 3,000 guests. The bride’s dresses were valued at more than KSh4 million ($45,500), each made of real diamonds and she wore a new outfit every day. Family members flew in from all parts of the world. The couple hosted them in high-end hotels in Nairobi.”
In another wedding, the groom wanted to replicate Prince William’s wedding suit. He went to the UK and bought three military suits each valued at KSh3.5 million ($40,000) – for himself, his best man and the page boy. Then there are those who make their wedding planners sign contracts with non-disclosure clauses.
“However, there is nothing new under the stars. It is about creating experiences for wedding guests from the moment they arrive – how you put those elements together makes it a truly unique experience. If the money was budgeted for, the couples spend it. They don’t want to look at their wedding pictures and feel bad.”
Masitsa describes a wedding as the launch of the couple’s new life together to the public.
“The way you launch a Toyota is not the same way you launch a Benz!”
With Kenya’s wedding market projected to grow steadily, there are already international designer brands setting up shop in Kenya. The Echo Boom, also known as Generation Y or the Millennial, is the next big generation to move into the ‘engagement zone’.
Eighteen million Kenyan men and women, born between 1980 and 2000, make up this generation. This group offers bridal marketers an opportunity to reach a larger audience than in the past and also an increase in market share.

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$2.3 Million For A Wedding?

Joy Ndungutse’s two-storied home in the upscale Kagugu area of Kigali is a fitting showcase of her artistic taste and talent. There are woven baskets on the walls, wooden chests and African figurines by the stairs, and an open patio featuring plush red cushions and a view of Rwanda’s rolling green hills.
Ndungutse, 57, is sprawled on a sofa, and offering homemade organic juice. “Try it,” she insists. Her large-heartedness becomes more evident when she says: “My whole life is devoted to the welfare of women. I want them to win awards and be motivated. You empower a woman, you empower a community.”
Ndungutse is referring to the brand she founded and has made her so famous, from Kigali to Madison Square in New York. Gahaya Links, a range of home décor and tribal jewelry handcrafted by Rwanda’s rural women, is sold across all Macy’s stores in the United States (US).
To think Ndungutse’s life started in a dingy refugee camp in Uganda.
<div id="attachment_29434" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29434" class="size-medium wp-image-29434" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5250-300x209.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="209" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5250-300x209.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5250-600x418.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5250-768x535.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5250-1024x713.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5250.jpg 1023w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Joy Ndungutse Founder of Gahaya Links</div>
Born poor into a family of “farmers and cattle-keepers”, Ndungutse spent her childhood in Uganda as a refugee with her parents, far from her hometown in Rwanda.
“I have seen and felt hunger, there is nothing I don’t know about suffering, and that is the reason I do what I do,” she says. She had eight siblings growing up, and while her father went looking for food, her mother would boil water to give the children hope there was food coming.
“We would see the steam and imagine food on the plate. The mothers suffered the most, that is why I really wanted to work hard and do something for the lot of rural women,” she says.
Ndungutse would see her mother and sister weaving baskets and that income paid their school fees. She soon studied to become a secretary, and found herself winging her way to the US. But her refugee upbringing never left her mind. That was to shape her career in the years to come.
“I was a very good secretary. I met my husband in Washington and lived in the US for 15 years until the war started in Rwanda. I had both my children in the US.”
In 1994, she returned to Rwanda and saw the country in shambles in the aftermath of the genocide. She wanted to help rural women left hopeless by the tragedy.
“I was not a rich woman, but I had skills to share, having studied design in America. I knew how to weave baskets.” Ndungutse’s business venture literally started under a tree in a small village called Gitarama in Rwanda’s southern province.
She began by teaching 20 women, and that figure has now grown to a network of 5,000 Gahaya Links weavers. She taught them traditional weaving in turn empowering them.
“I told the women they should change the way they weave and make it income-generating. I taught them to make quality products under that tree,” says Ndungutse, who also roped in her sister Janet Nkubana to help. The baskets were made from local materials like sweet grass, bamboo and papyrus. A visiting friend from New York saw them and placed an order. The handcrafted baskets were a hit.
“The products appeared in Parade magazine in the US and that was an opening for us. We subsequently did an exhibition in the US and Macy’s loved our products. We have been displaying our products in Macy’s since 1997. We are very strong partners with them. We have also done O bracelets for Oprah, have done necklaces and bags for Kate Spade, and I once gifted baskets to Bono and he wrote a letter thanking me,” says Ndungutse.
Along with her sister, who continues to be her business partner, Ndungutse’s next task was to train the women and step up production to make it sustainable. Her mother offered her large home, where she trained the local women.
“We trained the trainers and they trained others, creating a network. We now have 75 cooperatives across Rwanda.”
Ndungutse says Rwandan President Paul Kagame launched her products at Macy’s to show his support for the people of Rwanda.
“President Kagame inspires me. I do not want to fail him. I tell people he is our hero. He is very committed to the empowerment of women in Rwanda. How many presidents would stand in a department store to launch a product?”
Ndungutse also has a line of jewelry sold by American retail major Anthropologie. There have been awards as well, notably from The Museum of Arts and Design in New York. She has now put up a new factory in Kicukiro district in Kigali and has added a textile component.
“My life is simple. I laugh a lot and like to have a good time. I work hard, even on weekends. Next year, we are planning to open in the European market. Our designs are inspired by tradition, and positioned for the high-end luxury market,” says Ndungutse.
<div id="attachment_29436" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-29436" class="size-medium wp-image-29436" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5260-300x208.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="208" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5260-300x208.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5260-600x416.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5260-768x533.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5260-1024x711.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Joy-Ndungutse_5260.jpg 1023w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Joy Ndungutse</div>
The basket-weaving program has no doubt fostered a sense of security and entrepreneurship among the women she supports.
“Basket-weaving has a reconciliation factor. We are working with all women not [differentiating them as] Hutus and Tutsis. Through the weaving, they have been able to forgive each other; they don’t live in anger. I feel wealthy when I see the change in their lives. They are able to hold their heads high and support their families. I may retire soon, but I want to leave a legacy of women who become real entrepreneurs. When that happens, I will die a happy woman.”

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Bracelets for Oprah, Baskets for Bono

Ignore Elize Strydom at your peril. The chief negotiator for the Chamber of Mines may have a calm, affable and measured manner about her, but her warning to society could not be filled with more thunder and fire.
“We have five years to get things right in South Africa or we will have an Arab Spring on our hands. We have tremendous inequality that makes for a ticking time bomb in this country,” says Strydom, the labor relations expert.
She speaks to FORBES WOMAN AFRICA just days after the country’s longest-ever strike, affecting the platinum sector, finally ended (see opposite page). In the same week, the gold mines that traditionally use centralized bargaining (which Strydom leads for industry) had to turn to the labor courts to uphold an interim order preventing trade union Amcu (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union) from calling a protected strike.
Amcu is the dominant union in the platinum sector but has only about 19% of the total members in gold. Their hardline presence is nevertheless shifting the dynamics of labor relations across the board. Strydom says Amcu represents “a whole different animal” at the negotiation table. They are the elephant in the room. As Strydom points out: “As unskilled labor goes, miners are relatively well paid, yet in the case of the strike in the platinum sector, miners were prepared to sacrifice everything and go without pay for five months. It means we are talking about issues that are much more than just about wages and money.”
It speaks volumes and Strydom puts the watershed moment for labor, government, business and society as a whole, at the Marikana massacre in August two years ago. Forty four people, mostly miners, were killed. The ripple effect from that dark week in the winter of 2012 changed the country and labor relations irrevocably. It has forced government, industry and labor to respond differently. Strydom is up for the challenge – she has to be. In her favor is her track record of breaking molds and surprising everyone by treading where she’s not expected to be. She joined the Chamber in 1999 and became the first woman to lead wage negotiations for the organization, first for the coal sector in 2001 and then for gold in 2005.
“Bless the coal sector. They trusted me in 2001, even though they were quite skeptical a woman could lead the negotiations. But by the time I was moving to gold, they were sad that they were losing me,” she says from her corner office in the Chamber of Mines Building in downtown Johannesburg.
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She comes armed with a master’s and doctorate in income law, company law and labor law, but Strydom is known to also don a hard hat and make unexpected visits to mines, choosing to descend three kilometers underground to understand conditions  mineworkers face every day.
“I’m not an ivory tower person,” she says. She has also been called a capitalist with a socialist heart. She’ll accept the label because she says it’s what makes her fully engaged with an agenda that is not just about pitting two sides together over money. The bigger agenda of socio-economic upliftment and a sustainable and transformed mining sector is what she knows is the bigger prize.
Right now that means focusing on implementing the Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry. It’s a government-driven initiative and a document adopted a year ago. It compels organized labor, business and government to meet new targets and address the legacy issues that still cast long shadows over a sector that still props up the economy and gives employment to around 500,000 people.
It’s a framework agreement that is itself framed by multiple inherited pressures. The biggest of which for Strydom, who was at one time a university lecturer, is a failed education system that’s perpetuated a low skills base and a culture of paternalism, that’s pernicious and dominant on South Africa’s mines.
“To me, our biggest failure is that we have lost 20 years of education and now have a lost generation that has not had proper schooling,” says Strydom.
It means her work is never over, not even when she is finally able to take a week’s break in the bush.
But when the break’s over, she’ll be building relationships with new players in the negotiations arena, shoring up old allegiances. She may also be called on to work on more everyday challenges, like developing a buddy system for female miners, overseeing designs for two-piece overalls for women miners or weighing in on how many centimeters a spear can be, before it’s classified a dangerous weapon and banned from a mine.
“It is a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity. It can be exhausting and depressing but I remain fiercely loyal to the mining industry,” she says.
And Strydom isn’t known to flap or spread crises too far out from her. It’s not her style. She says: “I know the essence of me, who I am, and that’s how I can keep my balance, even in mining, which make no mistake, is a tough, tough world.”

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Fiercely Loyal  In A Man’s World

It’s not uncommon for flight stewardesses to attract the occasional – and often derisive – comment that they are nothing but ‘trolley dollies’ or ‘waitresses in the sky’. Having been an airhostess for over three decades, Neil Haasbroek should know.
But for Haasbroek and many others of her generation, these remarks didn’t matter. What did was that it was a profession they adored, and one that came with its own sense of pride, dignity and discipline.
Described as “the angel in the blue dress” during a tea party in her honor in Johannesburg, South Africa, Haasbroek, now 80 and settled in the city, is one of the longest-serving airhostesses of one of Africa’s oldest airlines – South African Airways (SAA).
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She began her career in 1957, when SAA was known as SAL (Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens) and the country was ruled by the apartheid government. The airline wore a different look then: the tail of its body was orange and it sported a leaping navy blue springbok.
She had joined at a time when being an airhostess was seen as a short-term career option for women before entering their next phase of life – marriage.
But not for Haasbroek. She broke stereotypes and ended up working with SAA for 36 years.
“I had never thought that I would become an airhostess because I thought that I was too short at the time, and not as beautiful as I imagined an airhostess should be,” says Haasbroek.
It was only after she saw a newspaper advertisement that she thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Little did she know then she would spend almost half her life in the skies.
Haasbroek talks of how she moved up the ranks after a two-and-half year stint as a domestic flight attendant to later serve on international routes.
“I remember for the first six months, we only traveled to Australia, those were long flights – 23 hours,” she laughs.
“Thereafter, the world was my oyster. I spent 11 years traveling overseas.”
She then became a check-flight hostess, tasked with inspecting the conduct of the crew. Her most favorite role was as instructor and chief airhostess of the airline.
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“It was very exciting to get a group of girls that I had to train and be like a mother to them, and solve their problems,” says Haasbroek. Part of her job was to make sure the crew looked the part.
“Before every flight, I had to check their hair, make-up, nails and weight. They had to be well-groomed at all times. It was a wonderful career. I loved interacting with people, every flight for me was special and I could leave all my worries at home.” While many of her colleagues got married and had children, Haasbroek was married to her work, and every year, as new aspirants joined the airline, she treated them like her own children.
“I always say one of my greatest regrets was not having children of my own, but the hostesses became my daughters,” she says.

‘Angel In The Blue Dress’

In 1934, Helen Richey was the first female to pilot a commercial airline in the United States. A little less than 80 years later, in South Africa, three female pilots embarked on the first long-range flight with an all-female flight deck crew for South African Airways (SAA).
“I’ve been a captain on the long range for seven years and I’ve never had two ladies on the flight deck with me. These things happened by accident, it was a coincidence,” says Captain Jane Trembath, who flew with Senior First Officers Taryn Hochstrasser and Jocindy Mars.
It’s also about the numbers – there are far more male than female pilots, hence the likelihood of having a male co-pilot is greater. Of the 130,000 airline pilots worldwide, 4,000 are female, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots; around 70 of SAA’s 780 pilots are female.
“At 9%, we are still higher than the international average, and [Mars’ cadet program] were at 25%, which is even higher. It’s been through the cadet program that we’ve increased our percentage of women. SAA’s aim was 50-50, but I don’t think that’s ever happened. There were some intakes where only women survived, and women have a higher passing rate,” says Trembath.
SAA has offered a cadet training program since 1994, and it is highly selective including extensive medical and psychometric testing.
“The cadet program only takes a selected number of people, not everybody gets in, you have to be chosen, you have to be good enough, like these two,” she says, pointing at Hochstrasser and Mars.
“It’s difficult to get into the cadet program, I was told they’d received 8,000 applicants. They only chose 16 from those and the selection process took a year,” says Mars.
“We did psychometric testing, if you passed that, you went for a medical and a personality test, and then there is a final interview before you get chosen,” says Hochstrasser.
“You never know exactly what they’re looking for. The most important thing is the actual desire, because it’s a hard road for men as well as women, if you don’t have that desire then you won’t have the tenacity to stick it out. That’s probably what they’re looking for: do you really, really want it,” says Trembath.
Trembath’s non-conformist parents loaned her money to attend a flying school, where she completed her private and commercial pilot’s license. In the early 1980s, it cost around R15,000 to qualify. Today, it costs a minimum of R350,000 ($33,000), and flight training costs around R1,300 ($122) an hour. Due to the cost, some qualify through the air force, many subsequently move into commercial aviation to clock more flying hours.
After earning her wings, it was time to fly, but no one wanted a female pilot, and an inexperienced one at that.
“You always think each step of your commercial license is the most difficult: exams are difficult, getting the hours is difficult, writing your final flight tests is difficult, but it’s not. The most difficult part was getting a job as a woman back in
the 1980s.
“I got turned down for a couple of jobs because I was a woman and I was told that to my face. It took a lot of persistence and I had to hang in there,” says Trembath.
There aren’t many opportunities to gain experience, but newly-qualified South African pilots are hired by South African companies to fly their airplanes throughout Africa.
Trembath became a pioneer in South African aviation: “SAA didn’t have any women pilots before 1988. They accepted me along with two other women [Brenda Howett and Jennifer Burger], that was a whole new thing for the industry.”
In 1993, she was also the first South African female pilot who qualified to fly a Boeing 747-400. During her 32-year career, she is proud to have had many firsts and to have witnessed change.
“Today, as a woman, it’s a lot easier to find a job. In small companies, women are judged on their merits and no one is turned down because they’re a woman,” says Trembath.
There may be more female pilots today, but they still experience prejudice. Between the three of them, they recount stories of hesitant parents, unsupportive guidance counselors and mocking friends. Similarly, passengers do double takes when they see a female pilot, elderly men openly pray during a flight, and passengers pass snide remarks about empty kitchens.
“Two students came to the flight deck to say hello. He was from Netherlands and she was from Finland. She asked, ‘Are you the pilot?’ I said, ‘Yes, didn’t you hear the PA announcements?’ She said, ‘no, so you actually fly the airplane? Females can be pilots?’ It was strange because she comes from a first-world country and yet still has the same perceptions as everybody else,” says Hochstrasser.
They have learnt not to try change people’s minds, but to deal prejudice with humor and through empowering communication.
“Whatever you’re doing, you have to have a passion for it, because it won’t always be easy. Provided that you enjoy it and you’re doing it because you really, really want to do it, don’t do it for anyone else,” says Mars.
Truer words were never said.

Women Power At 30,000ft

At the well-attended launch of her book Good Morning, Mr Mandela in Johannesburg in June, Zelda la Grange, Nelson Mandela’s trusted aide who he called ‘Zeldina’, was introduced “as the person who walked in the same steps as one of the greatest legends”. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a televized message on the occasion: “Your utter devotion to Madiba was so obvious to anyone…In many ways, it was a symbol of hope for the new relationships in our country.”
La Grange says ‘Khulu’ (grandfather) or Madiba always knew she would write a book. The Afrikaner, who was brought up in apartheid South Africa, started as a typist in the office of the first democratically elected South African President in 1994 at the age of 23, going on to work with Mandela in various capacities for 19 years. She started penning down her thoughts in 2009, “not for the purpose of it becoming a book, but to offload memories”.
“It’s a personal memoir and I want people to read the book and be inspired by my change,” said la Grange, ahead of the launch, when we caught up with her for more:
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Can you describe your first meeting with
Madiba in 1994 at the Union Buildings?
I bumped into him, he extended his hand and I said ‘Good morning, Mr Mandela’. That was the turning point of my life.
He broke all my defenses. I was brought up to believe this person is my enemy, and when he spoke to me in Afrikaans, I felt guilty and started crying. I felt responsible, that my people and I were brought up to believe that he is the enemy. And yet you can see the sincerity on his face, his smile; and [I was thinking] why was I so afraid of him. It was in complete contrast to what I expected and I cried. He told me at that first meeting I was overreacting.
Did you draw any criticism in the early years when working for him?
At first, there was a lot of criticism within his own political circles, about why he chose a white woman. He was very careful to relate that story to me at first, knowing I was sensitive and after a while, he would joke about it. He would repeat the entire conversation and say: “Can you believe they would say this?”
It also provided people with entertainment. Madiba’s and my sense of humor had a strange similarity; so we would joke about even these things. He was always looking for humor in any situation. There is nothing laughable about being in prison for 27 years, but he was always trying to find the lighter side of things.
Did he ever get angry?
He had vices and virtues like everyone else. He was a very determined, almost hotheaded person. You couldn’t sway him once he decided something. You knew not to mess with him when he was angry. [But] Madiba didn’t hold grudges, he would get over something very quickly but you would know exactly how he felt. If you look at the CODESA negotiations, he was really angry at F.W. de Klerk at some point – the photographers managed to capture his body language beautifully. He managed to change the narrative. He always had this mindset of reconciliation, of unity, and there was a strategy behind whatever he did.
How was the transition once he retired from the Presidency?
The morning after his retirement was quite a wakeup call. We thought we would pretty much have access to state resources, and we could rely on certain things from the government, but any retiring head of state is in for a full surprise. We had no media protocol, no foreign affairs – all of that was gone.
You have traveled widely with him. Any memories?
I am reminded of our visit to Iran, during President Khatami’s presidency. In the book, you will see how important women’s empowerment is for Madiba. He insisted on me going to the palace where women are not allowed. So we went to dinner at the President’s residence, and there were only male bodyguards and security. I was fighting off photographers, as Madiba’s eyes were sensitive to flashlights. I tried staying in the back so not to offend anybody with my presence. It was very noticeable I was the only female there. A butler then sent for me, and Madiba said, “Oh Zeldina, the President wants to have supper with you.” The whole time, the President asked about South Africa, and Madiba would not answer; so I had to speak. I was put on the spot.
Did you get to spend enough time with him in the final years?
The later years, from 2008, when he started slowing down, he stopped all public appearances and meetings. There was no business any longer to discuss. I tried to go once a week to Qunu [to meet him], more on a personal basis.
How did you come to terms with his passing?
Those ten days of the funeral, I will never want to relive again. You have to deal with the outpouring of emotions from the outside world, and you don’t have time to deal with your own emotions. I still find myself thinking, has it really happened, is he really not there anymore? I have never lost anyone close to me. I am very fortunate. Both my parents are still alive. This is a very new experience for me.
Are you still in touch with
Graça Machel?
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I am very close to her. She is true to her name; she epitomizes grace and strength and has been an emotional stronghold for all of us, through his illness. She was not there only for Madiba, but for us as well.
What kind of work are you
involved in now?
I am still contracted with the Nelson Mandela Foundation; at present [I take part in] leadership courses for the foundation, and I do a bit of motivational speaking, just telling people my story and conveying the lessons I have learnt.
Did you ever think you put your life on hold?
I think I have gained so much, and have been so exceptionally privileged that I wouldn’t say I put my life on hold really. It evolved into something greater. My working hours were nonstop. When Madiba was President, he would call at 2AM and say, can you get hold of Minister Trevor Manuel? I didn’t go for a movie for 10 years. I was too scared he would call and I wouldn’t be able to help him.
You were very special to him?
It would be incorrect to say I was the only one, or the special one. There were other people who played vital roles in his life. My role was confined to his public life, so people need to see it in the context of my duties.

How Madiba Changed Me

It was like re-living a moment in South African history, going back 58 years with Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, to the place where it all began.
We are outside the Union Buildings in the South African capital Pretoria, and De Bruyn is wearing a dark coat and shades on a cold winter morning.
She was hardly 18 when as one of four women leaders, she marched 20,000 other women to the Union Buildings on August 9, 1956.
Today, she is an elegant, demure grandmother, and the last living member of the famous four who led the protest, the others being Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa.
It has not been an easy journey, and this particular moment stokes many memories of that historic day.
“I had no fear,” she said, as we made our way to Pretoria.
The women had decided that they did not need, or want, passbooks (special identification booklets that limited their freedom of movement) as black or colored women. And as she delivered their angst in a letter to the Prime Minister JG Strijdom, a major supporter of the apartheid government, on that chilly August day, De Bruyn and her comrades set the precedent for Women’s Day in South Africa.
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<div id="attachment_6391" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6391" class="size-medium wp-image-6391" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sophia-de-Bruyn_Womans-March-300x217.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="217" />The 50th anniversary of the march in 2006.</div>
The 1950s were a tumultuous time in South Africa. Mass meetings were often met with violence by authorities. And political organizations, designed to fight the system, were separated by race. The rule of law, which accorded non-white South Africans the status of second class citizens in their own country, was at its worst.
This was why the Women’s March was the ultimate act of defiance.
It was unheard of in those days for any woman, let alone colored women, to stroll around the Union Buildings, the seat of South African government. For De Bruyn, the buildings housed more than the men responsible for deciding their fate. To her, they were the “Holy Grail”.
And after surviving the travails of getting the women to Pretoria, she was unafraid of any consequences.
The women had journeyed far and raised a fortune to make the march. De Bruyn’s group arrived from the Eastern Cape in two coaches. They sold tea and scones at political meetings for a profit of three pence, and a shilling was earned from serving chicken stew and rice. These little enterprises raised enough to make the long trip north.
Originally, the women had intended to camp outside the Union Buildings for an entire week. But the logistics of that plan were too difficult to follow through. Instead, they organized within their splinter groups and made their way, separately, towards Pretoria. When she saw the women that day, De Bruyn says she was gratified.
“The glory of how they looked, and their dignity and grace, and that determination in lifting their feet in a place where no other African person had done before,” she says.
The women came in droves and that surprised De Bruyn. There were women of every race at the march and she remembers the splendor of that scene.
“It was a splendid day, [there were] women in all sorts of dress – Indian women wore saris, the African National Congress [ANC] women in their green, black and gold and others in their everyday wear.”
She didn’t realize how many they were until she “sat and looked back at them, in their thousands”.
After the march, De Bruyn committed herself further to the freedom struggle. As the 1960s ended, she joined her late husband, Henry De Bruyn, who was exiled in Zambia. While in Lusaka, she took evening classes and studied for her O level certificate exams. Three years later, she moved to Nairobi and earned a diploma in education. The De Bruyns did not return to South Africa until the early 1990s to a short-lived return. Soon after the ANC came to power in 1994, she moved with her husband to Jordan as the first South African diplomats there.
Even when in exile, De Bruyn concerned herself with the freedom of the South African women she left behind. She spearheaded the ANC’s Women’s League in Lusaka and, with the help of then ANC president, O.R. Tambo, forged a place for women in the party. But her concerns have shifted, over the years, to the freedom of younger African women.
“I think our young women have got it in them. Today, the things that are there for them weren’t there for us. What gives me a sense of gratitude is to see our young women and what they can do.”
When speaking about the 1956 march, De Bruyn is humble about her role in the protest. She insists that it was an “event of women” in South Africa’s history and not her own. Yet the memory and the triumph of that August day still drive her.
“It lives on in my psyche,” she says, taking a long, hard look at the Union Buildings.

LOOKING BACK At A Landmark Day

It’s 8am and Ela Gandhi, wearing a traditional khadi kameez, is seated on a sofa by the window of her modest 13th floor apartment in the hilly Glenwood area of Durban, South Africa.
The apartment, where she lives with her youngest daughter Ashish Ramgobin and her two children, overlooks the Durban harbor and offers sweeping vistas of the city. A stately piano is next to her, which she often plays, and above it, a painting of her grandfather Mahatma Gandhi gifted to her by the Rustomjee business family in Durban.
In the living room where she is, are glass showcases filled with sepia photographs, Gandhi memorabilia, pictures of Ela with Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, and several silver and crystal plaques, medallions and awards, among them, the prestigious Padma Bhushan (India’s third highest civilian award) she received from the Indian government in 2007.
In January this year, Ela received an award for her lifetime contribution to the freedom struggle in South Africa alongside other veterans of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) – the armed struggle wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Ela clarifies she had never been a member of the armed wing, but receiving the award was an honor.
On the other side of the room, pictures of her as a child with her grandmother Kasturba Gandhi, and in the lap of Abdul Gaffar Khan, a lifelong pacifist and friend of her grandfather’s. There is a black and white photo in the hallway that is a particular favorite: of a six-year-old Ela in a white dress standing next to Mahatma Gandhi at the height of the freedom struggle in India.
In her bedroom are bookshelves laden with tomes on her grandfather; she rates the one by author Sudheendra Kulkarni to be the best. She spends most mornings here, working on the computer, editing articles for the monthly non-profit newspaper Satyagraha published in Durban.
<div id="attachment_6385" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6385" class="wp-image-6385 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Aug-Sep-030-031-Ela-Gandhi-002-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Ela at the Phoenix Settlement in Inanda; on the wall is the reproduction of a note signed “MK Gandhi”</div>
“I have been inspired by my grandfather’s teachings all my life. Be the change you wish to see, is my favorite quote of his,” says Ela.
Her daughter Ramgobin, who runs an NGO promoting sustainable livelihoods for the poor, says Gandhi is an important part of their legacy in South Africa. “In India, Mahatma Gandhi is a public holiday, but his messages are very relevant in our lives here,” she says.
Ela has upheld the family’s legacy, running several community projects, among them the Phoenix Settlement where Gandhi ran his anti-discrimination activities during his 21-year stint in South Africa. All through her illustrious political career, Ela has had the distinction of interacting with Nobel laureates – Tutu, Mandela, and Albert Luthuli who was also a close friend of the Gandhis.
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The Drive To Phoenix
Ela revs up the engine of her turquoise Toyota sedan for the 20 kilometer drive to the Phoenix Settlement in Inanda district. As she hits the N2 North freeway – she is a careful driver – she speaks of the apartheid era, when she was banned in 1973 for her political activism, and placed under house arrest for eight-and-a-half years.
“I had to report to the police station every Saturday and couldn’t leave the house between 7PM and 7AM. I had to stay indoors on weekends and public holidays,” she says.
The years roll by as she recollects the day her son Khush was shot dead, a year before South Africa’s democratic elections. He was only 29. To date, she does not know who was behind it or if it was politically motivated.
“The scar of losing a child will never leave you. [We] will never know why it happened. It was covered up,” says Ela.
In 1990, she was among the United Democratic Front team that met with Mandela at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town prior to his release. When the ANC government came to power in 1994, she served as an MP for nine years. She has met with Madiba many times since.
“He used to call me by name,” she says.
As still part of the Phoenix constituency, Ela developed a program against domestic violence, and started her work with the Gandhi Development Trust.
When we finally reach the Phoenix Settlement, it is clear Ela feels at home here.
This is where she was born in 1940, living here for the first six years of her life. After the Mahatma’s return to India in 1914, it was Ela’s father Manilal Gandhi who came back to Phoenix in 1917 to run the Gujarati-English newspaper Indian Opinion and continue his father’s legacy. Ela’s father was also a strong influence in her life on the Phoenix farm.
“We had a small kitchen with a chimney and a central dining room. All the children slept on the wooden floor. The place was buzzing with life. Although we had no power or water, we had very good times here,” she recalls.
When her grandfather first set up the communal farm in 1904, the homestead was a humble wood and iron dwelling. He valued simplicity, manual work and self-sufficiency. “It was a snake-infested property and my grandfather was afraid of snakes,” she says.
What was a 100-acre farm is today “a fenced-in area of about 1.5 acres” including a school and a museum, which records Mahatma Gandhi’s influences – Tolstoy being one of them – and how he influenced the world.
“This is a site of extraordinary significance in the liberation movement. John Dube, the founding president of the ANC, was his neighbor. There was so much contact between them, but it’s not talked about,” says Ela.
Ela remembers one particular conversation she had with her grandfather, while at the Sevagram (land of service) ashram in India that advocated simple living and farming.
“I told him that if they want to cook and serve pumpkins in the communal kitchens everyday, why do they call it ‘land of service’? They should call it ‘land of pumpkins’. Later during a speech, he told the people that when he asked them to live in simplicity, he did not expect them to eat pumpkins every day. I remember so distinctly that conversation with him and the aftermath of it. Everybody was curious who had leaked it to him.”
Ela says even after he left South Africa, Gandhi stayed in touch with Indians here, telling them “your destiny is connected with Africans, so work closely with them”.
Ela visits India at least twice a year, visiting her mother’s relatives in the state of Maharashtra, and never missing an opportunity to visit the Gandhi memorial at Raj Ghat in New Delhi.
“I visit India, but I am a proud South African,” says Ela. She is Gandhi’s indelible link to South Africa.

Grandfather Gandhi AND I

It’s a scenic two-hour drive from Kigali to the rural landscape of Kinazi in Rwanda’s southern province. Being the only journalist in this field mission led by the energetic and dynamic Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, has its advantages.
Firstly, there’s a grand welcome awaiting us at the other end.
Barefoot children and grateful women greet the convoy, erupting in song and dance in pink, yellow and blue costumes that put the beautiful hillsides to shame. The men and infants are huddled under umbrellas in the warm sun, and the women give the occasion “so much zest”, as Mlambo-Ngcuka later says.
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In Kinazi, UN Women partners with Terimbere Mutegarugori, a cooperative bringing together 93 women from various backgrounds to enable them to financially support themselves and their families through agricultural initiatives.
This group is one of 11 cooperatives supported through the Imali Project, meaning ‘wealth’. Currently, they are being given seed money, modern greenhouses and training to increase tomato and mushroom production. This project is financed through core funding to UN Women, from the Government of Korea and in partnership with the Imbuto Foundation, headed by Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame.
That the Rwandan government is committed to gender promotion is evident even in this tiny village.
Women are an unprecedented 63.8% of Rwanda’s parliament. Yet, there is need to ensure they are given skills to generate daily income, develop a savings mindset, upgrade their skills and sustain their communities.
As Mlambo-Ngcuka tours the greenhouse inspecting rows and rows of red, juicy tomatoes, soon to be sold to the market, the farmers around her swell with pride. This project has changed their lives.
In just two years of operation, the results are there to see. Members are using the money to pay the children’s school fees, and have also opened savings accounts to transition to the next level of empowerment.
“Food is a woman’s issue. It’s your responsibility to make sure the nation is well-fed, to make sure that out of the good land, you also have opportunities. You feed your children and yourself and you also come here to generate the surplus to sell, and [you get] income. You have done well,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka in her address to them.
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“We should also remember the other cooperatives and the 11 greenhouses spread throughout Rwanda. Together you can create a critical mass and take charge of the market. Sitting in New York, I should be able to eat a tomato from Imali. I want to be in South Africa, and eat a tomato from Imali,” she said.
Truly, you help a woman, you help the world.

Tomatoes From  Kinazi To New York

The shocking abduction, and no return, of the 300 Nigerian schoolgirls has entered its fourth month. Fears for the fate of the girls have been escalating since they were the stars of a viral video released by their captors, the extremist group Boko Haram, just a few weeks after they were taken. The minute-long clip panned in, then out, of a dry field in an undisclosed location. The girls sat fearfully, huddled together in long grey burkas which covered their hair, but not their faces. It remains the only proof the girls may still be alive.
Thus began the social media-driven ‘#BringBackOurGirls’ campaign. Despite its many controversies and false starts, it offered some international solidarity for not just the girls taken from Chibok but for other trafficked women around world. The global outrage highlighted the urgent need to fight for the rights of countless women lured from their homes, hideously exploited – and never returned.
Worries have begun to mount, especially after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau’s admission that he was going to sell his female captives, that the girls may have been separated, pooled into smaller groups, then trafficked as sex slaves to Europe, Asia or other African destinations. This, of course, is one of the many working theories on what might have happened to the girls. Nothing is confirmed.
Several weeks ago, unconfirmed reports from Associated Press flooded international news cycles claiming Boko Haram had struck once more. Allegedly the group kidnapped another 60 girls from villages close to Chibok along with a host of young boys.
All these incidents have turned the global attention to human trafficking – a multi-billion dollar international industry which operates in a hidden network of alleys and dimly-lit apartments, where women’s lives are traded alongside money, illegal drugs and weapons.
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Going Undercover To Report
Tobore Ovuorie, an investigative journalist with Nigeria’s Premium Times, says six out of 10 people trafficked to the West are Nigerian. She has spent the bulk of her career studying the human trafficking trade and even lost a friend because of the industry. Last year, with support from an Amsterdam newspaper, Ovuorie went undercover for seven months to find out how the African trafficking syndicates worked.
Posing as a sex worker, Ovuorie saw, first hand, the terrible realities of the trafficking world. There were the orgies, a seemingly endless supply of controlled drugs and bags full of hard currency. First Ovuorie was taken to a ‘boot camp’, which all the girls had to endure before being moved to Italy. It was there that she saw an even darker side of the business. Two of the women she was with were beheaded in front her. Ovuorie claims that the group that owned them also sold human organs on the black market.
“It was the worst moment of my investigation,” she says.
Eventually, Ovuorie escaped the syndicate at the Nigeria-Benin border. She says that she walked away from the experience, “bruised and beaten, but still alive”. She has since written about her time with the traffickers although some passionate skeptics have questioned the credibility of her account.
But that was the least of her worries.
“When I returned to write the story, I feared reprisal from the syndicates and I fear I will have to watch my back for the rest of my life. Forgive and forget isn’t written in the dictionaries of these monsters,” she wrote in an email.
Despite the controversy around it, Ovuorie says she does not regret telling her story.
“It was worth it. Human trafficking is increasing in Nigeria.”
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Lured For Work, Food, Even Love
A majority of human trafficking activity is far more insidious and calculated than the tactics of Boko Haram. In South Africa, the Durban-based anti-trafficking group, Umgeni Community Empowerment Centre (UCEC), understands this well. Their counselors have rescued scores of underaged girls soliciting on city streets especially within the local red light strip, Mahatma Gandhi Street. The girls come from a mix of backgrounds, some born in Durban while some were brought in from cities further afield like Harare, Dar es Salaam and Maputo.
It may be a different context from northern Nigeria but the impact is just as devastating. Far removed from the higher echelons of piling statistical reports and complicated legislation, counselors, like the ones at UCEC, deal with the gritty, often terrifying realities of the trafficking netherworld. The women they help are mostly drug addicts and emotionally-scarred. Trust is a rare commodity amongst these women and going home, full of shame, is never an option.
Joy Conradie, a UCEC counsellor, says these women are unwittingly drawn into the trafficking world by promises of work, money, food, clothing and, in some cases, love.
“The targeted victim is spotted, be it in a club or simply getting onto a taxi,” she says, “the traffickers will make contact and they are very charming and highly manipulative.”
Conradie says the women are usually force-fed drugs and once they become addicts, the “free party ends and the nightmare begins”. The traffickers then demand payment for the drugs. The trafficked women, now addicts and destitute, are trapped by the debt. Left with little choice, they are forced into prostitution to pay their dues. Often, refusing to sell their bodies leads to them being “beaten, raped, threatened and isolated until she gives in”. This, unfortunately, is only a single scenario. Trafficked women across the world face a diversity of abuses.
“The girls are often moved from city to city and even across borders,” Conradie claims, adding the youngest victim they have helped was just 12 years old. The irony of this kind of sexual slavery is that it is largely driven by a desperation to escape poverty which traffickers exploit with offers of jobs that don’t exist.
Conradie says it is not just poverty that allows trafficking syndicates to flourish. A lack of education and awareness within the communities where victims are sourced also contributes to the trafficking cycle. But the lack of economic options also exacerbates the situation.
“We also come across sheer desperation in child-headed households, where an older teenage girl will prostitute herself in order to feed her younger siblings,” says Conradie.
To combat human trafficking, she says, more safe houses need to be provided for victims, as well as far stricter border controls, skilled rapid response teams to investigate human trafficking cases, and comprehensive intelligence gathering to understand where and how trafficking outfits operate.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) said in May that forced labor in the private economy draws in around $150 billion in illegal profits each year. Two thirds of this figure comes directly from the sex trade.
The organization’s Director-General, Guy Ryder, said that this added “a new urgency [for] efforts to eradicate [this] fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice, as soon as possible”. The report also claimed that there are approximately 21 million people bound by forced labor and trafficking around the world.
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Legislation to fight trafficking syndicates has been, slowly but surely, implemented across Africa and the world. In South Africa, every province has an assigned Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force. However, their power is limited. The global nature of human trafficking implies not a local, but international solution.

She’s Not For Sale

A Creative Power

The names Nhlanhla Nciza and Mafikizolo are like bread and butter. Nciza embodies style and elegance, but behind this creative, is a businesswoman trying to make her mark parallel to her music career.
When she grabs the microphone, the world dances at her feet. Nciza fills the stage with joie de vivre and ebullience. She has the voice most people only dream of, that contemporary, yet retro throwback to Miriam Makeba, which appeals to both young and old. She dances on stage with panache, like a shy child being encouraged, but with elegance and class.
Nciza, 36, is not just the ‘first lady’ of Mafikizolo, but a woman harnessing another passion into a business. Having taken interest in the imaging of her career, it naturally followed that this stylish songbird would make a successful foray into fashion design, through NN Vintage.
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Mafikizolo, which means ‘new arrivals’ in isiZulu, has long outgrown its name. Nciza and fellow band member, Theo Kgosinkwe, have stuck it out for more than a decade, through thick and thin.
The duo has enjoyed a longevity uncharacteristic of many music bands. They started out competing at talent competitions, and now they’ve ended up winning numerous accolades.
“The awards mean a lot. We’re getting more love than we did before,” she says.
At the fourth MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs) in June, in Durban, Nciza thought she had no chance. A Nigerian was certain to win with their country’s 125 million subscribers ready to cast their mobile votes. A safe bet, since the Nigerian mobile market is the largest on the continent. Instead it was Nciza and Kgosinkwe who ended up walking to the podium for Song of the Year, for their hit anthem Khona. They also won for ‘Best Group’.
“Winning Song of the Year means a lot especially that Nigeria has a bigger population than South Africa, and we still won the award. It shows that people still love our music all over the continent,” says Nciza.
Mafikizolo returned from the United States (US) in June following their debut at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards in Los Angeles. The judges nominated Mafikizolo for Best African International Act, pitted against other exceptional African musicians including Nigeria’s Davido. Together, they had collaborated on a song called Tchelete, meaning money in seTswana, that’s currently ruling the airwaves in South Africa. Davido won on the night but for Mafikizolo, just being there – and performing for the first time in the US – was remarkable.
Fifteen months after releasing their double-platinum eighth album, Reunited, following their hiatus, the group sealed their comeback with eight wins at the South African Music Awards (SAMA) in April, along with Channel O and Metro FM Awards, also in South Africa.
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Trials And Tragedy
Mafikizolo’s story is also one of struggle. The band formed in 1997, and signed with one of South Africa’s biggest recording companies, Kalawa Jazzmee Records. Their first four albums barely made a ripple.
Worse was to come&#8230;
In December 2001, the group, then a three-member band, nearly died in a car accident. The trio had decided to drive to Katlehong, following a performance in Durban. Once home, they decided to drive in the dead of night to Mafikeng for a performance the next day.
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“Theo wanted to drive, I guess he wanted to impress his new girlfriend, now his wife. So the rest of us fell asleep and we were woken up by a big bang. And the next thing I remember was lying on the gravel on the side of the road,” says Nciza.
Their car had been hit by a train. Fortunately that night, all of them survived. The rest of the band was discharged the next day from hospital, but Nciza had to stay on for over three months.
Lucky to be alive, the group released an album the following year, Sibongile, meaning ‘we thank you’ in isiZulu. It was their breakthrough.
All was well. The group had picked up the pieces and were getting back on their feet when tragedy struck again on Valentine ’s Day in 2004. Vocalist Tebogo Madingoane was shot and killed in a road rage incident in South Africa.
Madigoane had brought the Kwaito sound to the group and his loss was another blow. Nciza and Kgosinkwe never thought they would end up as a duo, but in sadness, they did. After mourning Madingoane, the two picked themselves up with the sound of Mafikizolo.
Then came a purple patch. They released three more albums, Khwela, Van Toeka Af and Six Mabone.
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Mafikizolo 2.0
Their popularity grew but in 2008 they took a break to reinvent themselves as solo artists.
“It was scary for me and a completely different experience as I was so used to depending on Theo for so many things… I had to gain confidence and believe in myself, so I used my other talent to grab people’s attention and that was my [passion for] fashion,” she says.
During this time, Nciza released two albums, Inguquko (Change) and Lingcinga Zam (My Thoughts), and also started to put more hours into her clothing business, which she had started a year before.
However tragedy followed her. Nciza and her record company executive husband, Thembinkosi Nciza, lost their five-year-old daughter Zinathi in a car accident in December 2009. She was with her grandmother on their way to a pre-school to pick up a cousin when their car crashed into a tree. The grandmother blacked out behind the wheel and suffered minor leg and chest injuries.
“My work was greatly affected. I was in the middle of promoting my second album when Zinathi passed, so everything was on hold. A part of me is gone and it is the kind of emptiness that I may have to accept that may never be filled… I really did not know where to begin, where to start picking up the pieces and for a very long time I just remained in one place not knowing how to move on, it felt wrong to move on,” says Nciza.
“Were it not for my husband, I really don’t know how I could have started living again. In 2012, I was blessed with a son, Luvuyo and I am just grateful to God that he gave me a chance to be a mom again.”
<div id="attachment_6345" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6345" class="size-medium wp-image-6345" src="/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/451413792-300x210.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="210" />LOS ANGELES, CA &#8211; JUNE 28: Singers Theo Kgosinkwe (L) and Nhlanhla Nciza of Mafikizolo perform onstage at the Music Around the Globe during the 2014 BET Experience At L.A. LIVE on June 28, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/BET/Getty Images for BET)</div>
After mourning her daughter, she pulled herself together, mustered strength and continued with her career. Her family kept her going.
“Keeping busy helped me focus on other things, so I started writing music again, performing and started designing again,” she says.
Through NN Vintage, Nciza started to hire young people looking for jobs.
“I wanted to develop young talent. It was more about the love [of clothes and music] and not making money. I didn’t look at it in the business sense,” she says.
Nciza says she acquired her compassionate nature from her father, a court interpreter, who, even when his immediate family was struggling, would invite cousins into his home. Nciza ventured into the fashion business without any prior experience.
She hired eight seamstresses, a receptionist and rented a small studio where they could work from, financing it all herself, at a cost of around R70,000 ($6,500) a month. Revenue from her music career kept the business alive. But it was doomed from the first stitch.
“I realized a year and a half into my business that I had employed too many people and [had] too much equipment. When the recession came, I was probably the first person to go down,” she says.
“I lost a lot of money, around R600,000 ($56,000) including my savings. I was new in fashion and I needed to prove myself. I was a new designer and I couldn’t sell a R10,000 ($930) dress.”
Most times, the people who bought her dresses were those who knew her and her music, yet there were times when she struggled to make sales. She was so proud she kept the business failures to herself.
“I didn’t want to tell people that NN Vintage wasn’t there anymore,” she says. Her husband could have helped financially, but Nciza wanted to go it alone. She had to let go of nearly all the employees who worked for her. By the end of 2010, to keep her brand alive, Nciza stopped dressing clients and only designed for herself.
The following year, she went back to the drawing board. She started by sketching her own designs and slowly hired seamstresses to bring her designs to life.
“Right now it makes sense. I still want to learn more and empower myself. I want to learn how to make a garment,” says Nciza.
“When I started out, I was a bit conservative. I wore below-the-knee dresses. It was me at the time. What I do is not necessarily following trends.”
And indeed, Nciza is a fashion risk-taker. She is a musician with a palette for setting trends, just like the black and white dress on the cover of this issue, which she first wore for the opening act of the MAMAs.
“For this particular performance, I wanted attire that commanded attention, so I played with a lot of color and bright accessories. My designs are always inspired by Africa. They are feminine, yet bold and fierce at the same time,” she says.
At last year’s SAMAs, she wore a long-sleeved silver umbrella shirt with a pink ribbon around her waist and skirt. Another risk she took was at this year’s Metro FM Awards where she wore a monochrome striped peplum shirt with an umbrella skirt.
Her designs are for her fans. The revived NN Vintage is aimed at making garments for young adults and older women carving a niche in their industries.
Having been in the fashion business only a few years now, Nciza admits she is not making “crazy” money just yet, but claims people trust her brand. Nciza says she now sells garments costing up to R7,500 ($700), and is slowly getting her clients back, some from as far as Tanzania and Botswana. This would allow her to employ designers and more seamstresses and also open a store when the time is right.
“I plan to create a special range to supply to bigger stores, so it can reach all parts of the country, as that is my biggest challenge right now. I have also started with a men’s range and it will be launched soon,” says Nciza.
Few musicians are able to juggle their music careers, business and family, but Nciza is doing well.
<div id="attachment_6346" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6346" class="size-medium wp-image-6346" src="/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/451412938-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />LOS ANGELES, CA &#8211; JUNE 28: Singer Nhlanhla Nciza of Mafikizolo performs onstage at the Music Around the Globe during the 2014 BET Experience At L.A. LIVE on June 28, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/BET/Getty Images for BET)</div>
Mafikizolo’s music is inspired by their upbringing, their neighborhoods, their stories of love, and hardship.
“You don’t need to sell your soul in order to get ahead. Try and push, only talent will get you where you want,” she says.
Indeed, hard work and talent have taken Nciza and Mafikizolo to attain the success they are enjoying today. Nciza has created a new brand of South African music and a new brand of fashion. Both have her unmistakable stamp.

The First Lady  Of Afropop

As a child in Kampala, Dennis Kirunda Mahadha dreamed of playing professional football in the leading European leagues. The son of the legendary national team captain, Jimmy Kirunda, pursuing a career as a footballer meant he had massive boots to fill. Undaunted, he arrived at West Ham United’s Chadwell Heath training ground in 2003 for trials with the English Premier League team. On the cusp of achieving his lifelong dream, Mahadha played his heart out as he sought to convince the club to offer him a contract. Sadly, the verdict after the trial was unfavorable.
“They wrote back to me saying that I hadn’t qualified; not because I wasn’t good, but because of their structure here. If you are above 16 [he was 19 at the time], your chances of playing professional are slim. So I was disappointed and I thought about leaving football completely,” he says.
Mahadha took a break from the game to reconsider his career. During this period of introspection, the light bulb moment occurred.
“I found out that many African brothers have gone through what I went through. Disappointed, they decided to go on the streets frustrated as they thought their life was over. So I came up with this idea of the African Nations Cup UK, for them to come and participate, and come back into football. I thought that this idea of football can unite the whole African community in [Britain] and when the community is united, lots of good can come out of it.”
With the help of a few trusted friends, Mahadha began planning for the tournament. The inaugural event, which featured eight countries, was held at the Hackney Marshes sport grounds in east London in 2009. Although small in terms of the number of countries and players, Mahadha was surprised by the excitement and interest from the African community. This motivated them to press on with the event which is held annually.
“In 2010, we identified the real people in charge of community football, so that’s when it went big. We registered 16 countries; we played our matches at Beckton and had our finals at the Terence McMillan Stadium,” says Mahadha.
Each year, the profile of the event gets bigger. This year, the tournament was declared open by the Rwandan high commissioner to Britain, Williams Nkurunziza. Partnerships have also been established with various county football associations, charities and corporate organizations, such as the Essex County Football Association, the Terrence Higgins Trust and Kick It Out, the anti-racism organization established by the English Football Association (FA). It was based on this that Mahadha received an interesting email on a routine work day last September.
The growth of Mahadha’s tournament and his contribution to grassroots football grabbed the attention of the country’s football authorities. They sent him an email to tell him he had been selected to attend an event at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the FA’s 150th anniversary.
“I thought it was junk. I looked properly at the email to see where it came from; it had the logo of the FA’s 150th anniversary and the signature of the Chairman, Greg Dyke, and I thought this is real. I was so pleased.”
The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, who is also the president of the FA, hosted the event which recognized 150 individuals for their contribution to the development of grassroots football. Mahadha received a commemorative medal and certificate signed by the prince. He relives the moment with a mixture of happiness and humor.
“I went and bought a nice suit from Marks &amp; Spencer and we went to Buckingham palace. Security was tight and the event was fantastic.”
Significantly, the Prince’s words to him remain etched in his memory.
“He told me ‘this idea, this concept is so good. Just keep it up; keep up the good work for the community.’”
Recognition has also come by way of a formal ranking on the FA’s community development list.
“When we began, we were just affiliated with the county FAs, just to get the license to run a football tournament. We had to be organized, we had to have the right timing for the tournament after the football season; and we had to have a clear vision. Your objectives must be very, very clear. We had all these, so through that we managed to partner with different FAs, then ultimately the big FA at Wembley. That’s why, this year, our draws were done at Wembley Stadium. We are now rated number 67 on the FA leaderboard. I think Arsenal is third, Barnet is second for community development, so we are on that list.”
From its humble beginnings when around 500 players registered for the tournament, the African Nations Cup UK now attracts more than 6,000 players of African descent as participants. This remarkable growth means the tournament could be a platform for discovering new talent. Convinced that it could become renowned for this, the organizers have introduced an under-15 category to run at the same time as the senior tournament.
“We have the unspotted talent at the tournament. Last year, three boys were taken to [English Premier League side] Norwich for trials. They were from Ghana. Also, there was a Zimbabwean guy who is now in Turkey, but he was spotted at the African Nations Cup UK. Based on this, we started thinking of giving the youth a chance and we had to introduce the junior category as well. The best player from the winning side gets a chance to take part at a competition at AFC Wimbledon. So now we give the best young players a chance to do trials at some good clubs,” says Mahadha.
The organizers hope the impact of the tournament will also be felt in Africa.
“We believe that African Cup of Nations UK will be a feeder to the African Cup of Nations. We get good players from here, they go into their national teams where they come from or where their parents come from, and they play for them to represent Africa,” says Daniel Lutaaya, the co-founder and head of marketing for the tournament.
Despite these remarkable achievements, Mahadha believes there is still some way to go to achieving his vision. He wants to have all African countries represented at the event.
“My dream is to see that not only 20 countries take part in this, but all 54 African countries take part. If we have 54 countries, then we’ve united the whole community. It’s not yet over until we reach the last person in the community.”

African Cup Mends Broken Dreams

East Africa is fast emerging as an important investment destination going by the recent Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), according to the 2014 Africa attractiveness survey by Ernst &amp; Young.
Four East African countries were ranked in the top 10 countries by FDI projects in 2013, showing the regions increasing attractiveness among investors. FDI projects into the region increased by 7.4% in 2013 compared to the previous year, second only to West Africa which registered an improvement of 20.5%.
Also for the first time, the region overtook North Africa in terms of FDI projects. The region that includes Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi accounted for 17% of FDI projects flowing into sub-Saharan Africa between 2007 and 2013, which according to the survey have grown at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.4%, the second highest in Africa.
East Africa’s main attraction lies in its growing market potential which is made up of 210 million people, an improving economic environment, infrastructure development, political stability, ongoing integration through the East African Community (EAC) initiative and the recent discoveries of gas and oil.
Rising disposable incomes have seen financial services, retail and consumer products (RCP) and technology, media and telecommunication (TMT) become the three most targeted sectors in the region. Banks have seen the usage of their mobile phone services by their more than 50 million subscribers increase  more than six-fold in the past five years, making East Africa the world’s fastest-growing market. Notable investor countries include Kenya, United States, Britain and India. Kenya leads the pack as the biggest investor increasing its investments by 9.5% in the 2012-13 period according to investment specialists fDi Intelligence.
Kenya, being the biggest economy in the region, has naturally seen plenty of interest directed its way. The country attracted the second-highest number of FDI projects last year behind South Africa. In addition, FDI projects into the country have been increasing at a CAGR of more than 40% in the past seven years. With such high interest, it’s not surprising that Nairobi is home to some of the biggest international organizations such as HSBC, Bank of China and IBM. The latter even established its first African innovation hub in the capital, further shoring up the city’s status as a telecommunication hub.
The attractiveness survey that tracks FDI in the region shows Nairobi’s share of FDI projects in Africa has increased fivefold from just 1.5% in 2007 to 7.5% in 2013. Nairobi is now listed third as the most attractive city to do business in sub-Saharan Africa.
Tanzania is not far behind, especially following its recent natural gas discoveries. The country, which also ranks as Africa’s third largest gold producer, has seen FDI projects grow at a CAGR of more than 23% in the past seven years which is impressive considering its need for more infrastructure. Dar es Salaam is set to become Africa’s fifth-most populous city in Africa by 2030 and will see the greatest expansion of middle class households with incomes between $5,000 and $20,000 every year by 2030.
Uganda which debuted in the ranking of the top 10 countries in 2013 also grew its FDI projects by more than 20% since 2007. Recent oil discovery may keep the momentum of double-digit growth for a long time to come. Neighboring Rwanda has equally enjoyed impressive growth in the past few years underpinned by huge investments in IT infrastructure &#8211; the country laid fiber-optic cables covering the whole country in 2010 &#8211; and increasing ease of doing business, which has seen the country ranked 32nd on the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings in 2014 and third in sub-Saharan Africa for its favorable business environment.
The remarkable progress in FDI inflow shows the improving perception toward the region. Ongoing work toward a common currency by 2023, together with the plans to make the region operate as a common market, should further boost East Africa’s attractiveness in the coming years.
Already the common market protocol which came into force three years ago, and set to be fully implemented by 2015, is expected to achieve the four freedoms &#8211; free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the region.
This should help grow East Africa’s intra-regional investment and encourage regional integration. With such progress, it’s undoubtable that the future is bright.

The Investment Hotspot

The big news after the World Economic Forum in Abuja is the assumption of office by Nigeria’s new Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, after a tumultuous spell that followed the controversial suspension of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, with less than four months until the end of his tenure.
Before his appointment, Emefiele was CEO of Nigeria’s Zenith Bank. Widely described by local media as conservative, Emefiele is expected to depart from Sanusi’s outspoken and hyper-visible stance. While Sanusi never shied away from making his views known on everything from government spending to relations with China, Emefiele is likely to maintain a penchant for anonymity.
He has already announced some policy changes, while also expressing a commitment towards Sanusi’s trademark stance on exchange rate stability. Charges on cash deposits in banks, instituted by Sanusi as part of an aggressive cashless banking policy, have been removed. Emefiele also plans to bring down interest rates, even though it is not yet clear how he plans to do this. An air of uncertainty will continue to dominate as the new Governor gets settled and concrete signs of the direction of his tenure start to emerge.
One of the biggest challenges facing the managers of Nigeria’s economy will be controlling the impact of election campaign expenditure. Election cycles in Nigeria witness a surge in spending on advertising. The country’s fuel subsidy budget notoriously ballooned four-fold in the lead-up to the 2011 general elections. Inflation, brought down to a single-digit figure under Sanusi’s watch last year, will experience significant upward pressure.
The effects of the rebasing of Nigeria’s economy in April have started to manifest. Nigeria’s weighting on the 23-member MSCI Emerging Markets Index recently rose from 12% to 19%. Analysts have suggested that the rebasing will heighten interest in Nigeria’s bond markets. A bigger economy also means that Nigeria’s appetite for debt has increased. Debt-to-GDP ratio has dropped to 12%, from 20% pre-rebasing.
The Petroleum Industry Bill remains unpassed and chances of it getting the green light dim as the elections approach and campaigning overwhelms the legislators. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, is involved in a last-ditch bid to convince Parliament to pass the bill, which will significantly alter the face the of oil industry.
Nigeria’s mounting security challenges are a major cause of concern, but the country’s immense opportunities – Africa’s largest population, a growing middle-class and growing consumer spending – mean that it cannot be ignored by any serious investor.
This much was clear from the enthusiasm on display at the World Economic Forum in Abuja in May. It was Nigeria’s first hosting opportunity in the forum’s 24-year history and was adjudged an overwhelming success – according to the organizers, attendance was at record-high levels – in spite of being overshadowed by security concerns and by the global outrage triggered by the abduction of more than 200 Nigerian girls from a boarding school in the country’s insurgency-hit northeast.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who attended the forum, met with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and signed a series of investment agreements in telecommunications, energy, agriculture and transportation.
Nigeria is currently China’s third largest trading partner in Africa; in 2013 trade between the two countries was in excess of $13 billion, up six-fold from a decade earlier. On the eve of the Abuja meeting, Chinese state media reported the signing of a $12.5-billion contract between China Railway Construction Corporation (CCRC) and the Nigerian Ministry of Transportation for the construction of a high-speed 1,385 kilometer railway line in Nigeria. It is not the first multi-billion dollar railway deal between Nigeria and China. Chinese companies are involved in the rehabilitation of the century-old line linking Lagos and the northern city of Kano, and a new light rail system in Abuja.
Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina has said he’s expecting as much as $4 billion in private investments in the sector on the back of the most important meeting in African business. The World Economic Forum announced that the gathering resulted in $68 billion-worth of commitments to investments in Africa.
Against a backdrop of the forum’s themes of jobs and inclusive growth, there will be many be watching to see how the commitments translate into action. Only this will result in concrete benefits for Nigeria’s 170 million people.

Tag: August 2014

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