It was as tough as tough could be. From his early years, life loomed like a clenched fist in the face of Teboho Twala. These days he drives a Porsche and is a classy and elegant young entrepreneur a world away from his often tortured childhood.
At the age of 10, he was sleeping under a wheelbarrow in the yard and lived on the streets for more than a year. The reason – a troubled childhood through a mother who turned to drink and violence when Twala’s stepfather left her. His job became protecting his younger brothers and sister while dodging drunken rages by sleeping in the open in Qwaqwa, in South Africa’s Free State province, a 300-kilometer drive from Johannesburg.
Twala was left stranded without a plan, but someone was there to help him.
The first saviour was the mother of a friend, Masabata Sophie Mokome, known as ousie Sophie. She was the only one that stood up for Twala while other neighbors were scared, he says. Soon after, she told his son to fetch Twala to live with them.
“She ran a bath for me and the next day she took us to Edgars and bought us clothes,” he recalls.
Twala was adopted for over a year before moving back with his grandmother after she heard he was homeless.
Sadly, the grandmother died while young Twala was in secondary school. Fortunately, after living alone for a while, he was taken in by his aunt who is a domestic worker.
<div id="attachment_5525" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5525" class="size-medium wp-image-5525" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Teboho-012-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Teboho Twala</div>
He didn’t have an easy childhood, but the hardships steeled him into the man he is now. These days he has a trimmed beard, articulate speech, and is always on the phone.
He is a 35-year-old entrepreneur who makes a hangover drink, which also doubles as an energy drink for those who don’t drink alcohol. It is called Zzero Hangover.
It is a legacy of high school where his second saviour, his principal and biology teacher, believed in him like a father.
“Mr Ntsane; he looked after me. He may not have given me money but pushed me and I pushed myself,” he says.
Twala did so well in school that his fellow pupils collected money to pay his registration fees at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
“The whole school had to donate, R1, R2. Mr Ntsane and I had to go to taxi ranks and government buildings to donate and we raised R1,700 ($120),” he recalls.
Young Twala passed all his subjects and he bought himself a Pentium 1 computer for about R1,000 ($70). It was his first computer and had no idea how to operate it; he had to learn fast. He was doing his first year in a bachelor of science (BSc) degree and needed to do assignments.
Two years later, he dropped the BSc for chemical engineering; he passed and got a bursary with Gold Fields in Virginia, Free State where he was reunited with his land of birth.
Sadly, all didn’t go well. Gold Fields’ share price went down in 2004 and students had to go home. Twala was without registration fees, nor a job.
Stranded without a plan, in stepped another guardian angel.
“A friend of mine assisted me; he had just finished his master’s and started working. He paid for my registration at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). I did well there; I had seven subjects and got five distinctions,” he says.
Post-graduation, Twala worked for Impala Platinum and later got an offer to work for South African Breweries (SAB). Two years later, he got a better offer with a bigger responsibility from Impala Platinum, in Rustenburg, in the North West province. He went back and worked right through to 2011.
The blessings came in abundance. That same year, he got an opportunity to work for a German company looking for a process engineer. Through that, he got an opportunity to work in Nigeria and travel to Germany.
That is when his entrepreneurial interest developed. He was inspired by the young entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
“But also, I had a boss, Sir David Osunde that believed in me. He was an old man; he took me to big meetings. I could then do presentations to ministers. That’s the level I was at because of this man,” he says.
Twala and other engineers from other parts of the world lived in a camp in cluster houses; each owning one. Besides work, they had nothing else to do. So they would spend time at the bar.
One night, they went to a pub and had a little too much to drink. The morning after, one of the engineers had a heavy hangover and didn’t know how to get rid of it, says Twala.
He took that as an opportunity and researched what could kill a hangover.
A European at the camp told him there was a solution for that in their continent. It was in Slovakia, but it was a German product with their head office in Austria. It was confusing for the young man.
In 2013, Twala came back to South Africa for a holiday. He wanted to make the idea work and not go back to Nigeria. He contacted people from Europe and told him they have a person in South Africa with a franchise, he bought it. He started distributing the product.
“It was called Alcohol Kill, but now it’s dead,” he says.
After traveling to and from Europe, Twala lost the R1 million ($70,000) he had invested in the business.
He had to come back and rethink how he was going to make the hangover solution work. During that period, he met a neurologist who said she could make an energy drink.
“I wanted something unique; my mind was on a hangover solution,” he says.
They worked tirelessly together and got a formula after a year.
Before that, Twala’s entrepreneurial instinct had kicked in. He and a friend bought News Café; a cafe-bar and cocktail franchise restaurant founded in South Africa.
He used that as an opportunity for customers to taste his product at the bar. He was getting good responses and decided to start bottling, manufacturing and distributing the product.
Twala came across a company called Boxmore which specializes in packaging. He bought generic bottles and branded them. The next challenge was finding someone who could fill the bottles.
He was satisfied with Inhle Beverages in Heidelberg, south of Johannesburg, which filled for big companies like USN and Clover. Throughout the production phase, all the companies liked the brand and its uniqueness.
Zzero Hangover was now born and had a trial run in April 2016.
“We produced a few units and sent them to the shops. That’s when the story broke in the media which was good for us,” he says.
The product was launched in May. Today, it is found in big retail stores across southern Africa. Zzero Hangover is self-funded and directly employs 10 people and contracts about 300.
Twala went from sleeping under a wheelbarrow to driving a Porsche and looking like a hero in his childhood township in the Free State. The hangover from his tough childhood has gone.

A Tough Hangover

“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good,” runs the proverb and the accuracy of that callous observation can be seen in the current labor mayhem trashing South Africa’s platinum sector.
Through their actions, the illegally-striking workers are doing exactly what is needed to bring a positive correction to the fundamentals of the platinum business.
On the downside, they are likely to pay a heavy price in permanently lost jobs because of it. In fact, all South Africans will suffer because of the knock-on consequences to the nation such as the recent cut in the country’s sovereign credit rating. That hits Eskom’s ability to raise funds which affects every electricity consumer in terms of future higher power tariffs and possible future power shortages.
The platinum price collapsed from around $1,750 in March because it became clear the global slowdown combined with the previous expansion in South African supply meant there was a surplus of metal in the markets, which analysts estimated at up to 500,000oz.
Economics 101 lays out a simple solution: cut the supply and the price will recover—but the South African producers would not, or could not,
do so.
Would not—because all miners are optimists at heart and believe the good times will return sooner rather than later. Therefore they did not want to incur the costs of closing shafts only to re-open them in a year’s time while at the same time handing commercial benefits to competitors who did not cut back.
Could not—because the platinum miners are under extreme political pressure from government to preserve jobs and that pressure can be applied in a variety of unpleasant ways.
The strikers have now done management’s work for it. Estimates of the amount of platinum production that could be lost this year, so far, sit around 300,000oz.
Surprise, surprise—the platinum price has jumped more than 20% since the beginning of August from around $1,400/oz to around $1,725 in early October.
The platinum industry’s marginal projects—some of which should probably never have been started in the first place because they are only viable at sky-high prices—are now being squeezed out of business.
That’s likely to be permanent. Labor accounts for around 50% of total cash operating costs so steep hikes in wages have a huge impact on the financial viability of the mines.
What’s more, foreign investors—who put up the money previously for all the new platinum projects—are seriously unimpressed.
“The government needs to take control of the situation and solidify practice and protocol with regard to wage negotiations before the nation’s mining sector becomes uninvestable,” says Fairfax Securities analyst John Meyer.
Impala Platinum marketing executive Derek Engelbrecht recently stated, “The days of South Africa as a five million ounce platinum producer are long gone. The country could settle at output of between 4.25 million oz and 4.5 million oz. The challenges being thrown at the industry make the attainment of 5 million oz very, very difficult.”
Remember—this was the sector of South Africa’s mining industry with the best growth prospects. Not only has that growth been, at best, considerably delayed but there will be a heavy price in lost jobs from the present work force.
Estimates on the jobs that could be lost range from 10,000 to 30,000. That results from a trend that has been obvious on the gold mines for the past 20 years. Time and time again, the unions have pushed for, and received, annual pay increases running well above ruling domestic inflation rates and the mines have coped by cutting out the higher-cost production assets that were no longer viable.
The one ray of light, is the agreement just reached between Gold Fields and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over the new operating model for the mechanized South Deep mine.
I find it significant that Gold Fields management, after exhausting normal negotiation procedures, took a hard line stance issuing a Section 189 notice putting all the jobs at this mine on the line.
Being a nice guy clearly does not work. In December, Kumba Iron Ore paid out R345,000 ($39,800), after tax, to each of more than 6,000 of its employees, in terms of a free five-year share incentive scheme.
As of early October production from Kumba’s Sishen mine was suspended after 300 workers went on strike and blocked access to the pit.

Unintended Consequences

It has been another wounding month for Africa’s biggest mining industry that it is likely to take years to recover from, despite efforts by unions and mine owners to heal the rift.
Tens of thousands of mine workers spent the month marching and protesting in wildcat strikes, across South Africa, for more pay. There were so many, it was difficult to keep track.
<div id="attachment_1349" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1349" class="size-medium wp-image-1349" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/AV_00024554-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />CARLETONVILLE, SOUTH AFRICA ñ SEPTEMBER 11: Disgruntled mine workers gather to be addressed by expelled ANC Youth League President Julius Malema at Gold Fields Mine on September 11, 2012 in Carletonville, South Africa. The South African Defence Force has been put on high alert following Malemaís visits to various mines in the country. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Antonio Muchave)</div>
Fifteen thousand workers were on strike at Gold Fields, stopping production at KDC Mine, in Carletonville 79km west of Johannesburg; hundreds of workers downed tools at ferrochrome miner Samancor; thousands went on strike at AngloGold Ashanti’s operations, 80% of Anglo Platinum’s workforce stayed away and at Aquarius Platinum a mob of 200 illegal strikers forced their way into the mine and threw petrol bombs.
On October 8, the head of Aquarius, the ebullient Stuart Murray, became the third platinum CEO to resign this year.
At least three people died in October in South Africa’s mines and 20 were injured. Police, soldiers and union leaders struggled to keep control amid the tension of nearly three months of wildcat stoppages that would have been unthinkable five years ago when the mines were booming.
Economists talked of the danger of drifting into recession as the losses piled up. By the second week of October, Gold Fields had lost at least 35,000oz of gold from its KDC Mine, while Angloplats, the world’s largest platinum producer, had lost 67,000oz and revenue estimated at R1.1 billion ($125.8 million).
Mines have been closing shafts, cutting costs and firing staff as the losses have grown. Twelve thousand workers lost their jobs at AngloPlats on October 8; at Gold One—where a strike began on October 1—1,435 of 1,900 employees were fired at its Ezulwini Operation and at Bokoni Mine, in Limpopo, 2,000 workers lost their jobs.
More shafts are likely to close in the next few months, at the cost of even more jobs, according to mining analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions, Peter Major.
“In August, when the platinum price was down to 1,400 [dollars], half of the mines in South Africa were losing money. The price may have gone up, but now they have to cope with an unstable workforce. The price is only good if your mine is working and I can see more mining companies closing shafts to try to survive,” says Major.
“I was in a telephone conference with Indian investors this week and they were saying they are avoiding all of the mining and resources stocks here. They only wanted to talk about finance and industrial stocks. It was the worse phone call we have had for years.”
Christo Fourie, the CEO of PCC, South Africa&#8217;s biggest quantity surveyors and consultants to mining capital projects, agrees that there is likely to be long-term uncertainty in the industry.
&#8220;A lot of people are concerned right now. We have had a lot of projects put on hold or cancelled,&#8221; he says.
While the mining industry fretted over its future, the custodians of its once robust wage negotiations tried to put the wildcat strike genie back into the bottle.
Unions and mining companies met at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg to agree upon new pay scales for the gold mining industry. They include: doing away with Category 3, as an entry level and adjusting all newcomers’ pay up to Category 4; an allowance for rock drill operators; a new category for locomotive, loader, winch and water jet operators and adjustments to pay to preserve the integrity of the current job grading framework.
&#8220;It is critical that all the parties show leadership in restoring stability to the mining industry and bringing an end to the unprotected industrial action that is besetting the industry,” says Elize Strydom, the chief negotiator for the Chamber of Mines.
<div id="attachment_1346" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1346" class="size-medium wp-image-1346" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ED_0016111-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" />CARLETONVILLE, SOUTH AFRICA ñ SEPTEMBER 13: Gold miners gather at Gold Fields KDC West Mine under the watch of police members on September 13, 2012 in Carletonville, South Africa. Miners have embarked on an illegal strike to air their labour grievances and their unhappiness with the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers. (Photo by Gallo Images / Dino Lloyd)</div>
The long-term aim is to bring platinum, which has always settled its own pay deals, into the collective bargaining talks in which unions, representing 300,000 gold and coal workers, strike a pay deal every two years with the mining companies through the Chamber of Mines. It is a process that promises certainty and parity for the workers and a chance to plan for costs for the next two years.  Wages make up 50% of mining costs.
The next wage talks are set for June, but talks will have to begin sooner rather than later if they are to bring platinum into the fold. Even then, there are few certainties to comfort the mine owners in the face of an open revolt against low pay.
“Wage talks are not going to do much good, these disputes are all about politics,” says one official from the National Union of Mineworkers.
There are wild whispers doing the rounds that this is an orchestrated grassroots campaign to bring the mines of South Africa to their knees to usher in nationalization, a radical course of action that has all but been abandoned by the government.  Concrete evidence of this is unclear; what is clear is that it is likely to be a bleak Christmas in Africa’s largest mining industry.

It’s Going To Be A Bleak Christmas

Carletonville, 60km west of Johannesburg, is a town teeming with miners, but on this day there are none to be seen. The reason: a gold miners’ strike over pay for the first time in more than six years.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-large wp-image-106" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/MINES-2_011-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />
It is a strike that cost the gold mining industry 15,900 ounces of gold production a day, meaning losses of $23 million daily, according to Kobus Nel, a mining analyst at Stanlib in Johannesburg. The strike will dent the share prices of South Africa’s largest gold miners: AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony. The reason—one of the most fractious rounds of pay talks in South African mining history. The negotiations, held every two years, are crucial for planning for the industry as wages make up more than half of mining costs.
The gold companies thought they were going to have an easy ride this year with inflation at around 5%. The employers hoped to settle swiftly for between 8 and 9% and many labour analysts agreed. Employers were, however, flabbergasted in May when the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)—the most powerful union in the land—asked for 14% and a package of costly demands. The employers calculated that these demands translated to an effective 25% increase in costs. Elize Strydom, the chief negotiator for the employers, described the demands as “disappointing and distressing”.
An opening offer of 4% was rejected with disdain by unions. To complicate matters further, the gold companies were divided. AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields were happy to raise the offer, while Harmony, with its old and marginal shafts, stuck to a lower offer. The unions in South Africa are on a mission, encouraged by a record high gold price, to close the wage gap between the lowest paid, toiling with shovels, and the highest paid, sitting in boardrooms. “These employers have rested on their laurels for too long—we want 14%, or we will strike,” said Lesiba Seshoka, the national spokesman for the NUM. It all boiled down to a deadlock at an offer between 8 and 9% on July 25, followed by an all-out gold strike three days later.
On the day, AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony were down about 3%, closing at R281.11 and R91.19 respectively. “If the strike lasts a week, the loss of production will represent 6.5% of quarterly production, quite a hit on the industry,” said Nel.
Surprisingly, Gold Fields closed flat at R103.50. Nel said Gold Fields may have been unscathed because it had already been aggressively sold o‑ due to its exposure to Peru where there was a threat of an increase in taxes. With stock markets forward looking, much of the negative impact of the strike had already been priced into the shares .Also on the day, investors were jittery about the European debt crisis and the political brinkmanship playing out in the United States over the great debt limit saga. These fears kept investors buying gold, pushing the price to record highs. Nel expects  the  gold  price  to  rise  and  rise  in  the months  to  come.  He  sees  it  peaking  at  $1,677  per  troy ounce  in  the  first  quarter of 2012.
AngloGold Ashanti, Gold  Fields  and  Harmony  the  day after  the  commencement  of  the  strike  were  relatively  flat closing  at  R281.00,  R103.60  and  R90.75  respectively. All  in  all,  the  last  week  in  July  proved  an  expensive one  for  South  Africa’s  three  gold  giants  and  their shareholders.

Tag: Gold Fields

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

A Tough Hangover

Unintended Consequences

It’s Going To Be A Bleak Christmas

Gold Shutdown