<h3>If you could be a super hero, who would it be and why?</h3>
I would be Batman because I feel he’s the most attainable type of superhero and there should be a Batman in all of us. He does not possess any super powers, but instead he makes the most of the resources he had access to, coupled with a considerable amount of skill to make a difference in his society; someone who will happily risk his life for other humans.
<h3>The best city in the world to do business is…?</h3>
Unfortunately, my view on that is still pretty limited, however when it comes to the industry I’m involved in, it’s both Los Angeles and New York.
<h3>Your personal style?</h3>
I try not to box my personal style because I’ve always felt that constricts it into something not diverse enough. I have a number of influences and try and draw from those, from the dapper gentleman to the streetwear enthusiast. But if anything, I think my OCD side ensures a common thread of neatness and structure with attention to detail for whatever I wear.
<h3>What are the key aspects to launching your own label and promoting yourself as a brand?</h3>
When it comes to both I think there are many overlapping principles; you need to know what it is you are offering that sets you apart, who you’re offering it to, what value that offering adds, what your standards are and then simply never swaying because consistency is paramount to any successful product, brand or company.
<h3>So will you be the next Top Billing presenter?</h3>
(Laughs) I’ve been getting asked this question often lately; it seems the rumor mill is as resilient as ever. I will not be the next Top Billing presenter, at least to my knowledge, but perhaps one day that time may come.
<h3>If you could square off with any TV presenter who would it be and why?</h3>
<blockquote>If I could square off with any TV presenter, it would be Ryan Seacrest, because he has become somewhat of an expert in what he does and even if I may not be a real fan of his, I have a great deal of respect for all that he has achieved through presenting and the ventures that soon followed. So I think squaring off with him would be an opportunity to both put myself to the test as well as just to sit back, observe and learn.</blockquote>
<h3>What should the African businesswoman wear to impress?</h3>
To be honest, the African businesswoman can wear whatever she wants, from a chic tailored power suit to a traditional African dress. It’s the broad sense of diversity that makes us unique and African, right? So if an African businesswoman can pull any of that off with confidence and a smile (the draw card), and as long as it fits and complements her, I am sold and very impressed.
&nbsp;

Maps-etch

7 Questions With Masego ‘Maps’ Maponyane

Yoga, which enjoys iconic status as an exercise form in today’s bustling metropolises, is a practice that dates back 5,000 years to the Indus-Sarasvati civilization of northern India. It is popular for its countless healing and rehabilitative benefits. Cape Town-based yoga practitioners Brian Bergman and Leela Codron thought: why not take it to prison inmates?
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Through SevaUnite, a non-profit organization based in South Africa’s Mother City, the two are now popularizing yoga’s downward dog pose and meditation in some of the country’s most prominent prisons.
“A group of yoga friends wanted to set up something that provided a platform to encourage people to follow the path of Seva yoga or self-esteem service as a means to self-development,” says Bergman, the founder of SevaUnite.
‘Seva’ is a Sanskrit word meaning service. SevaUnite identifies ways to selflessly serve.
“We always had an interest in doing prison work so we put out feelers but nothing really happened until Leela came back after spending a year at the ashram in India where we trained in this particular style of yoga. When she came back, we decided to go full time into doing the Seva project, that’s when things started to roll,” he says.
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With close to 200,000 inmates currently incarcerated in South Africa, they began at the Pollsmoor Maximum Facility in Cape Town – notorious for housing gang leaders and hardened criminals.
In his autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, the country’s late president Nelson Mandela, who has also served time in the prison, states “Pollsmoor had a modern face but a primitive heart”.
“It took us about a year to get into Pollsmoor initially. Just trying and knocking on their doors and we finally got granted access in 2011 and the project has just gone like that, us spearheading it and pushing it and slowly listening to all the signs and following them, we grew the project,” says Bergman.
Starting with one yoga class in the admissions center of the prison, the project has now expanded to classes in the male juvenile section and the women’s unit. SevaUnite also offers weekly classes at the Malmesbury Medium Facility in Cape Town and Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria.
“The inmates have always responded well, they’ve always really loved it. It’s the staff that has been a bit tricky. You get mixed reactions because of the misconceptions of yoga – that it’s a religion or only practiced by certain kinds of people. We also get mixed responses from the public where a lot of people feel that prisoners don’t deserve this type of program or luxury so to speak,” he says.
Bergman and Codron eschew the notion of yoga being luxurious or a passing fad. Yoga is discipline; it’s about harmonizing the body with the mind and breath through breathing techniques (as the first United Nations’ International Day of Yoga on June 21 demonstrated).
“We teach a much more integrated holistic approach which brings in a huge amount of mindfulness and incorporates a big body of yoga knowledge and at that level it becomes much more transformative. You see that with the prisoners, it does create that transformation in them, it rehabilitates,” says Bergman.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30728 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Brian-and-Leela-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Brian-and-Leela-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Brian-and-Leela-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Brian-and-Leela-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Brian-and-Leela.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Unlike mantra meditation, which involves focused concentration on a particular word or sound, mindfulness achieves a relaxed, non-judgmental awareness of your thoughts, feelings and sensations.
“You do one class and you immediately feel the effects of it. In a place that’s very stressful, intense and overcrowded and just not a nice place to be, anything you can do for yourself, to make yourself feel better immediately is going to be well received,” adds Codron.
As the saying goes, “the only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future”, Bergman is hopeful he will see some positive changes in the future.
“They are making that transformation where they may have done something wrong and were considered sinners but they’ll come out like saints. There are a few of those guys that I can’t wait to see on the outside and see what they do with their lives,” says Bergman.
The prison gangs in South Africa are intricate – and fearsome. The Numbers Gangs make up three gangs in prison – the 26s, 27s and 28s. The 26s are scammers and counterfeiters, the 27s are ‘Manskap of blood’ or murderers and criminals, and the 28s are sex offenders.
Prisoners network into gangs in relation to their offence. The Number Gangs take their inspiration from the real historical figure who founded them, Nongoloza Mathebula, an early Johannesburg bandit who built a quasi-military band of outlaws, welding his small army together with a simple but potent ideology of banditry-as-anti-colonial-resistance.
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“In Malmesbury, we’re apparently teaching some notorious gang leaders but we didn’t even know, that’s how different they appear to us. You can see they’ve got tattoos – 26, 27 and 28 all over them but they are such amazing men. So open and very honest, their development since August is phenomenal,” says Codron.
“It’s a constant dance between connecting with people who on one hand are completely different from you but on the other hand are exactly the same.”
From gangsters to gurus, the inmates know one thing for sure – that yoga is ‘time’ well-spent.

Still3

How Criminals Free Their Mind Behind Bars

Richard Maponya was trained as a teacher that never taught but he has enough students in business to fill a stadium. In the 1950s, a young Maponya did everything, from selling clothes door-to-door, meat to butchers, BMWs and property to the wise and wealthy. He endured oppressive apartheid laws and was shunned at every turn. Despite this, he has built an empire that is an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs.
In his retirement, Maponya, 88, still finds time to do business on his computer in the comfort of his home in Hyde Park, a suburb north of Johannesburg. In this winter’s afternoon, we met him settled in his study suited and booted. Around him, myriad photographs with prominent people, from Nelson Mandela to Richard Branson, tell his story. Amid these pictures are the Order of the Baobab, an honor from government for his contribution to entrepreneurship and the economy.
It is some minutes before Chichi walks in, for the father and daughter catch-up, from a meeting with a Nigerian delegation for Brand South Africa.
Together, they reminisce about their struggles from a small shop in Dube, Soweto, to what is today the Maponya Group.
“People often remarked that this girl Chichi, had she been a boy, she would be just like me. But I don’t see a difference… I am very happy with her personal development. It is so pleasing when a parent sees a child stepping into her father’s or mother’s field when one is still alive. I am witnessing what Chichi is doing, representing South Africa. She’s now an asset of a nation,” says Maponya.
Maponya’s remarks go down well with his devoted daughter.
“She was a very humble and loving child when she was growing up. I knew there was something in her because she would do things that reflected some intelligence in her. I knew then she was going to be somebody. Now the evidence is before us. We can see what she has become,” says Maponya.
Chichi beams, hearing this. She could have been 12 again.
“I thank the foundation my parents made not only for me but for every South African. So many black people looked at my dad and said, wow, if he could start from such humble beginnings and make such an impact in the economy and their communities under such harsh and difficult conditions. And here I am, I have better opportunities now and there’s access to capital. Why would I want to fail? So a black child looks at it in that perspective. And then you have a different narrative. There are white people who say he’s such an inspiration because against those odds, being a black person, having everything against you, and you succeed. What would stop me as a white South African with everything going for me, not to succeed? Either side sees this as our South African legacy. We dare not fail,” says Chichi.
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Maponya interjects to instruct Chichi to fetch a printout of an email on a mahogany desk.
“Absolutely, on that point, can you read this to prove what you just said?” he says.
“Dear Dr Maponya, I trust all is well. I am a big follower of you and respect you greatly. You are my role model and it would be a great honor to meet with you and help us and advise us in business. It would be a dream come true to meet with you in person and listen to how you started and where you are right now. Myself and my son have a fairly new business&#8230;,” reads the email.
Maponya says these frequent messages keep him going.
“For people to recognize what I have achieved during the difficult times in South Africa, I am humbled. During apartheid, black people were not meant to be businessmen. When I first came to Johannesburg, I wanted to be a businessman. But white government said no, you are here to sell your labor, if you want to be a businessman, you must go back to your homeland,” says Maponya.
Maponya acknowledged the influence of the Brazilians. He took Chichi with him to Brazil, in 2010, for business. Brazil once had an unemployment rate of 40%. Within 10 years, the country managed to reduce the number to 5%, he says.
Maponya sent Chichi to meetings when she was still at school.
“I was very fortunate to be mentored, the word mentoring didn’t exist at the time but when I reflect now I realize that was mentoring. Being taken under the wing, with my mom, we sat down and did books; going to meetings and negotiating business on behalf of family. That was mentoring,” says Chichi.
With Chichi in the driver’s seat, the Maponya legacy is guaranteed to live on. Like her father, Chichi has roped in her daughter Palesa Mabuse. Palesa is managing Chichi’s side business in outdoor media called Nalesa Media. Chichi also has Maponya Medical Solutions, which supplies medical equipment to hospitals.
“When you look at our history, there are not too many South African black businesses that succeeded the second generation. Most of them die with the founders. There’s that responsibility in me now that says I need to change the curve. I need to make sure that in my own little space, what was taught to me by my parents, I am able to pass on to my children. Hence when my daughter showed interest to work with me, I embraced it. I am nurturing her,” says Chichi.
“That was my teaching. When they went to school I would ask what other children carry at school. If they say it’s 20 cents, I would give her 20 cents. When she asked for more, I would say alright, when you come back you must come to the store and earn it. There was never money for nothing,” says the older Maponya.
After obtaining a BCom degree in economics management and marketing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Chichi worked in a project management company; Black Like Me; South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE) and Kwezi Asset Management, for more than a decade. She then returned to work with her father and their first project was Maponya Mall, her father’s holy grail, valued at R650 million ($52 million).
“When I finished my tenure at Kwezi, I went back to my dad and said I am back now. I had known they had always wanted to build a mall but they had not succeeded in doing it. I said let’s start now. You are the brains, you are the experience. Here is the fire now,” she says.
It took Maponya almost three decades and a string of lawsuits to carve out the first shopping mall in bustling Soweto, a township south of Johannesburg. In 2007, the former President Nelson Mandela launched the mall.
“I always knew that I will go back and work in the family business and take over and run it. I worked in the family business since I was in school. I would come from school and do my homework, go to the shop and the garage…
I left the comfort and the cocoon of the family business. Papa and Mama were very strict. I guess they were trying to protect us from being complacent,” says Chichi.
Maponya Mall has caught the attention of investors abroad.
“This last week I entertained a Venda chief. They say to me please, come and build a Maponya Mall in Venda. The same plea came from South Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria,”
says Maponya.
Beside family business, Chichi is leveraging her name with Brand South Africa on the continent. In 2012, she was appointed chairperson of Brand South Africa after she served as a trustee since 2009. The tenure will run until March. In 2008, she was voted ‘woman of the year’ by the Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa.
“In 2009, when we were appointed, Brand South Africa didn’t have a domestic mandate. So the domestic mandate was established that year. We changed the name from International Marketing Council to the current name. One of the attributes of a brand is its people, especially when it’s a national brand,” says Chichi.
They have a huge mandate, therefore, it calls for collaborations with other government departments and private sector to get the work done, she says.
Chichi is concerned that the attacks on foreign nationals in the country can taint relations with other nationalities. But she says these are isolated incidents that could be challenged by creating employment for the youth.
“In adversity, we rise stronger and more united. This has unified us as African people. It has brought us so close together. When you look at migration across the continent, people are looking for better opportunities and prospects… We don’t have Africa that’s in crisis. We don’t have Africa that is in war. Gone are those days. Africa is moving forward,” says Chichi.
Father and the fire – no one can ever put them out.

IMG_8876

Father & Fire

Apaltry rate of investment in infrastructure has dimmed the otherwise bright future for our continent.
Decades of self-serving economic policies, political agendas and some may say cynical or ‘feel good’ aid flows to Africa clearly have not delivered much. Yet, there is a new sense of enthusiasm and positive energy from Africa. The new generation of Africans is seizing the future.
The people are moving and the opportunities are endless for Africans. Entrepreneurs from around the world are engaged, but the picture has flaws; the story is oversimplified. The basic needs are still missing. Where are the ports and harbours, railways, roads, power plants and electrical and water distribution to support growth?
It is Africa’s diversity that makes it so rich, but it is also this diversity that remains the biggest hurdle to the growth that is eagerly expected.
Africa comprises 53 diverse countries – historically impacted by colonial era and cold war foreign ideologies; diverse languages, inefficient bureaucracy, nationalist inward-looking focus and economic protectionism. The continent often lacks experience when it comes to major infrastructure delivery and attracting private sector or foreign development investment.
Enter the World Economic Forum (WEF) and many other NGOs and Develop Finance Institutions (DFIs) who seek to usher in a better world.
WEF is a private institution respected as an influencer and incubator in helping the world understand the future.
The focus on Africa, in the last decade, has done good and raised the economic profile of the continent around the world.
WEF has no implementation resources or infrastructure delivery capacity but are good at investigation, evaluation and think-tanking. Ideas may abound but when does planning turn into delivery? Many highly qualified professionals with great ideas meet annually with apparently limited visible progress when it comes to the hardware on the ground.
In 2013, WEF stated that “with an expected annual growth of 5 percent in 2012-2013, sub-Saharan Africa continues its transformative journey from a developing continent to a hub of global growth. According to the World Bank, almost half of Africa’s countries have attained middle-income status. At the same time, the continent’s positive outlook is threatened by fluctuating commodity prices, rising inequality and youth unemployment.”
At that session, much time was spent on the identification of target and priority infrastructure projects and 51 were shortlisted. The work done on the projects list was commendable, but there were crucial missing factors preventing the realization of the funding and construction of these projects.
The ability to attract large scale DFI funding to the extent required, which is put at $75 billion by 2040, is still elusive due to three factors: the absence of upfront ‘at risk’ funding of early project feasibility studies that can attract full project funding from private, public and DFI sources; a lack of political will and technical knowhow.
At this year’s forum, it’s encouraging to see all three of these key factors firmly on the agenda. There is a realization of the need to have a regional integrated view and that non-returnable funds are made available, to enable project preparation to be effective which will lead to funding and implementation.
My birthplace in Zimbabwe and my own personal African infrastructure adventure, over the last 30 something years, has given me valuable first-hand experience of the immensely difficult task of getting major projects through to implementation, both from a private and public sector perspective.
My personal experience with WEF goes back to the event in Cape Town in 2010. I attended with a special interest in the economic growth drivers and capacity building within Africa’s infrastructure.
In a number of DFI forums, my colleagues and I stressed that while projects may be much needed, project financing funds will not flow unless there were crucial additional funds made available that paid for the early detailed feasibility studies, including the designs and accurate technical scoping, budgeting and funding mechanisms and ultimately project management.
At last, we may be seeing the DFIs and the many agencies seeking infrastructure solutions for Africa coming together to get the African vision moving.
WEF would have thus played a strategic role in unlocking the potential. Africa is waiting.

Africa Is Building At Last

In the last year, the cedi has lost more than 40% of its value and was the worst performing currency in Africa, the third worst in the world, in 2014. It was so bad that the government called in the International Monetary Fund.
To make matters worse, power cuts are plaguing the land. In the gloomy streets of Accra, they call it ‘dumsor’ – a colloquial expression meaning ‘on and off’.
Ghana is suffering from power rationing – a hark back to the dark days of 2007 – where people have to check a load shedding timetable to find out when their lights will go out. In February, the Ghanaian government purchased 80 megawatts (MW) from neighboring Abidjan so the nation could watch the African Nations Cup final between the Black Stars and the Mighty Elephants of Ivory Coast; it was the same story when Ghana celebrated 58 years of independence on March 6.
All of this is a blow to President John Dramani Mahama. When he took power, he promised to end load shedding in three months. Halfway through his tenure the lights are still going out.
One cause is the fall of water levels at the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River. The dam produces 558MW of power, or 20% of the Ghana’s needs, 17% down on the electricity it generates at full tilt.
The Ghanaian Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research has estimated that the power crisis has cost between approximately $85 million to $243 million.
Many who run businesses here say the power crisis has been devastating and expensive; as the number of generators sold increases, the rise in the price of fuel piles on the costs. It is estimated Ghana spends $3 million a day on diesel fuel for its generators. To remedy these rising costs, small and medium enterprises have even gone as far as having two price points for their services – a dumsor price and a non-dumsor price. Even if you have power, the rising cost of it is causing uproar among Ghanaians.
The Cocoa Processing Company and Nestle Ghana complain the lack of power has stalled new projects.
The government has made efforts to rectify the electricity shortage with new power plants in the pipeline. Ghana has also seen a new wave of entrepreneurs, in energy, step forward.
A few minutes’ drive from Kotoka International Airport, a meandering road running alongside the famous Accra Polo Grounds, solar powered streetlights light the way. The plan is to do the same on other roads.
Infrastructural development of Accra over the last few years has been immense but has come at a cost with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) unable to keep up.
Despite the economic hardship, the country is still able to attract foreign direct investment and the government has made efforts to rectify the power shortage.
The Atuabo power plant, which will receive gas from Ghana’s offshore Jubilee oil field, has overcome teething problems and is now in operation. It could generate up to 550MW; Ghana’s power shortfall is estimated to be around 400MW.
Another solution could be the numerous thermal power plants scattered across the country, namely the Asogli, Kpone and Aboadze plants. The problem is a lack of maintenance has seen many of these thermal plants either closed or working below capacity.
Then there is the problem of the bureaucratic ECG; many in Ghana have called for it to be privatized. A poor revenue collection system has led to growing debt that is another unwelcome hazard when it is trying to keep the lights on.
Surely, for this to carry on, is dumsor.

The Dumsor Down Of The Economy

In the weeks since Muhammadu Buhari was elected president several lists have emerged purporting to show his ministerial nominees; the frenzied list-making an expected outcome of Nigeria’s speculation mills tilting into overdrive during periods of political transition.
That federal cabinet, when finally constituted sometime in June, will, like all others before it, comprise a blend of technocrats and politicians. What is yet unclear is which of these groups will dominate, and if there will be a critical mass of reformers, similar to the group that dominated the second term of President Olusegun Obasanjo and helped him achieve landmark reforms in pensions, electricity legislation and Nigeria’s foreign debt position.
Buhari has said he will work to downplay the involvement of the cabinet in the award of contracts, and instead remake it as a “policymaking” body. He has also said he will not be depending on the governors to constitute his cabinet. If he follows through on this vow, it will be a break from a tradition set by the People’s Democratic Party, which has ruled Nigeria since 1999.
Nigeria’s constitution stipulates that all of the country’s 36 states must be represented in the federal cabinet. This means that there will have to be at least 36 ministers, regardless of whatever cost-cutting ambitions a president might have. During his first spell as president, Buhari’s preference for a relatively smaller government was backed by the near-absolute authority he held as military ruler.
The finance minister role gained unprecedented power under the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, when its occupant, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was concurrently designated the coordinating minister of the economy’ – likened by observers to an unofficial prime minister role. Considering the dire state of Nigeria’s finances, and also of its prospects in the short to medium-term, the choice of finance minister will be one of the most important decisions Buhari has to make.
The three people who represented the incoming government at the spring meetings of the World Bank in Washington DC in April – Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, a former head of the Federal Inland Revenue Service; Wale Edun, who ran the Finance Ministry in Lagos State between 1999 and 2004, and is also a co-founder of Stanbic-IBTC Bank; and Abba Kyari, a former CEO of UBA – have all been tipped to get the job. All three previous Finance Ministers have come directly to the office from the executive ranks of multinational banks – Mansur Muhtar from the African Development Bank, Olusegun Aganga from Goldman Sachs, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from the World Bank.
The Petroleum Ministry will also be keenly watched, as it is oversees the lifeblood of the government and the economy. Buhari has previously served as Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the national oil company, and Minister of Petroleum, and may be tempted, like President Obasanjo did for all of his eight years in office, to retain direct control of the all-important sector.
Anyone looking for possible insight into the nature of the Buhari cabinet might have to look at the Transition Committee he assembled in April, to liaise with the outgoing government and help lay a policy foundation for the new one. The membership of the committee drew from various blocs: the old guard (like Tam David-West, Buhari’s Petroleum Minister 30 years ago; and Committee Chairman Ahmed Joda, already a powerful federal bureaucrat in the 1970s when Buhari was taking on his first government role), and a crop of younger technocrats like Doyin Salami, a professor at the Lagos Business School, Wale Edun, and Bola Adesola, CEO of the Nigeria office of Standard Chartered Bank.
Some ministries have traditionally been regarded as A-list because of the relatively larger capital spending budgets they wield, and will therefore see a lot of intense lobbying from interested people and interest groups. They include health, federal capital territory, education, defence, works and water resources. Sources say Buhari’s plans to focus on diversifying Nigeria’s natural resource base beyond oil and gas will elevate the Ministry of Solid Minerals into this elite club.
Beyond the cabinet there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of appointments to be made over the next four years. Primary ones will include the cabinet secretary (secretary to the government of the federation), chief of staff, principal private secretary, a spokesman (‘special adviser on media’), a chief economic adviser, and, possibly – in keeping with recent presidential tradition – a quietly influential special assistant on domestic matters.

Who Will Run Nigeria?

We step off Analjit Singh’s blue Lexus into a picture postcard. Such is the scenic beauty greeting us.
Singh is immaculately dressed in blue – shirt, turban and Nehru jacket – and poses with the panoramic mountains, also blue, in the background.
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We are standing under a benevolent April sun in Leeu Estates, Singh’s farm in Franschhoek, a picturesque wine town in South Africa’s Western Cape province.
A few moments earlier, the Indian multimillionaire had driven the car to his farm, pointing to a large white cross perched permanently – like a beacon – on the slopes of the Dassenberg Mountain.
“Everything below that cross is mine,” he said.
We are on 68 hectares of farmland featuring vineyards, pomegranate and plum fields, oaks, olive trees and herb gardens. Men are at work, briskly laying bricks, building and restoring Cape Dutch edifices, putting together the many elements of what will be a boutique winery and 25-room five-star hotel set to open next year as part of the Leeu Collection.
“Leeu is our name [in South Africa]. In Afrikaans, it means lion, just as Singh in Sanskrit means lion,” says Singh. For the record, the number plate on his Lexus SUV is – no surprise – LEEU 1.
Singh cannot conceal his excitement, pointing to the vistas and the valley and everything in between.
We are soon negotiating a plywood plank, connecting precariously two mounds of earth, to the dining room areas of the under-construction manor house. Singh informs the building will also include a library containing both Gandhi and Mandela memorabilia.
The manor house overlooks a manicured garden with art occupying center stage – life-size bronze sculptures by South African artist Deborah Bell hand-picked by Singh.
“I know all the people in the art world in Cape Town; we have been acquiring art and sculptures all of which will be displayed at our estate,” he says.
Singh has 18 sculptures for the farm, he tells us, valued from $50,000 to $200,000.
Leeu Estates is a composite of three adjoining farms – Dieu Donné, Klein Dassenberg and Von Ortloff – that Singh bought in a year. The total investment in the development is $35 million.
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The estate will include a gym and spa – “that will be the best anywhere in Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl” – and a winery producing the Mullineux &amp; Leeu Family Wines, overseen by husband-wife winemaking duo Chris and Andrea Mullineux. Winners of the 2014 Platter’s Winery of the Year Award, the couple will develop a Leeu range of premium wines for release end of 2016.
Singh also has shares in their Riebeek Kasteel winery in Swartland, a wine region 50 kilometers north of Cape Town where he has another farm, only for viticulture. The Swartland winery specializes in Chenin Blanc and Syrah wines, specific to the terroir of the region.
Leeu Estates is but one component of Singh’s interests in Franschhoek. In this charming one-road town, he also acquired Rusthof, a country house now being renovated as Leeu House, a soon-to-open 13-room boutique hotel that will be “very Cape Dutch” with a large garden in the front.
And at the Heritage Square piazza a few meters away, he is set to open the town’s first Indian and Oriental restaurants, which will also include a bar. And alongside Leeu House, again a first for Franschhoek, he will open a microbrewery making craft beer.
“So that’s our story in South Africa,” says Singh.
Ranked by FORBES as one of India’s richest, with a net worth of $975 million, Singh is the Founder and Chairman of Max India Limited, with diverse interests in life insurance, healthcare, health insurance and senior living.
Max India has a successful joint venture with Life Healthcare in South Africa since 2011. André Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of Life Healthcare, calls Singh “a friend”.
“To me, Analjit is best described by the quote ‘the true character of a man is best measured by how he treats those who can do nothing for him’. No matter who they are, Analjit always treats people as his equal, with dignity and respect. To call Analjit a friend is truly an honor and a privilege,”
says Meyer.
A self-made entrepreneur, Singh is highly respected in India’s corridors of power. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors, in 2011.
The son of Ranbaxy founder Bhai Mohan Singh, he passed out of The Doon School in Dehradun in 1971, and is an MBA from Boston University. He lived in the United States for seven years before founding Max India in 1985. The 61-year-old Singh, who is also the non-executive Chairman of Vodafone India, lives in New Delhi with his wife Neelu and children Veer, Piya and Tara.
His stately bungalow at 15 Aurangzeb Road, in the Indian capital, sits on a three-acre garden estate. It was renovated with a neoclassical look in 2008, and Singh is known to only serve South African wine at home.
“But why am I [in South Africa now]? Was this a part of my plan and vision? Absolutely not,” says Singh.
Singh visited Johannesburg for the first time in 2010 for the FIFA World Cup with his wife and elder daughter Piya, when they also traveled to Cape Town for two nights. There was a reason why he did.
“The year before, my younger daughter Tara had flown to Cape Town for a wedding. [Before her trip], when she asked me if she could go, I said ‘absolutely not’, and I asked her, ‘how the heck do you get there?’ She [finally did], phoned me and said ‘it’s your kind of place and you have got to come’. I came here out of intrigue; I wanted to know if Tara was pulling my leg or if it was for real. So I arrive here, see the airport, see the town and see this is Africa. I never imagined you would have this little European jewel sitting out here and which otherwise was called Africa.”
Singh vividly recalls the following day when the driver took the family to the Cape of Good Hope and to Franschhoek, for the first time. Ironically, they stopped for breakfast at Grande Provence, the farm right next to Singh’s current estate.
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“When we arrived there, I got off the car, and said ‘where are we?’ I was like a kid in a toy shop. I looked around and there was such a sense of strong energy, a sense of beauty and a sense of place that I imbibed. It was like this is an unfinished piece of work; I have to come back and explore. Just what is this place on earth?”
“I think I later realized [why I took to the place]. As a Delhi family – until all the problems in Kashmir – for about 17 years, we were [regular visitors] to Gulmarg, [a hill station] in Kashmir. And ever since childhood, and probably because of the Kashmir experience, my preference became hills, mountains, fog, clouds, rain and snow and that carried into [my years at] The Doon School, where the topography was much the same. And then I went to [study in] Boston, also a very pretty city. So my whole leaning and preference became that way. And when I saw nature here in winter, I saw the hills and greenery. What is unusual is many places have hills and similar topography, but not at this proximity. Here, you feel like you can walk to them, and that’s a very powerful, energetic feeling.”
After that first inspiring visit, Singh returned to Cape Town, not once, but twice over the next six months, for what was a personal quest.
“I was entering a phase in my life where I was looking for some stillness. I was looking for places to be in that are tranquil, that encourage inner peace; I was looking for settings that are meditative in nature. I then realized this is the place for me. And so the idea was to get a small manor house as a form of retreat, and come here for a few weeks and escape Delhi’s summer. That’s how the story started,” says Singh.
After a fairly exhaustive search, Singh decided on his first property, Klein Dassenberg in Franschhoek, which – “look at the serendipity of the whole thing” – abutted Grande Provence.
“There’s another reason why we ended up there. It’s Vastu-compliant,” says Singh, an ardent believer of Vastu Shastra, an ancient Indian science of construction and architecture.
“The property is high on the south west, low on the north east. The directions are all correct but it had two problems: it had the kitchen in the west when it should have been in the east, and the living quarters were in the east which should be in the west.”
Renovations are on so they now conform to Vastu Shastra. When Singh bought the farm, it had a manor house, guest cottage, and a slave cottage, now renamed The Pomegranate House.
“We got going, until somebody suggested the farm next to us was on sale. Then there was an expansion opportunity on an adjoining farm with a winery on it. So I showed up, liked the site and we acquired that farm too, all in less than a year. And then the farm at the other end was also on sale. So we acquired that as well. And then, we had enough hectares to farm on our own, so we hired a farm manager.”
Luckily for Singh, he got top talent. He was introduced to acclaimed South African viticulturist Rosa Kruger.
“I was lucky to find the right people without looking for them. I told Rosa, ‘I don’t know the first thing about winemaking, would you mind taking my farm on contract?’, and she said, ‘I like you, so I will help you, but I can’t take on the responsibility’. Rosa told me about a boutique wine company called Mullineux, they had two angel investors, and were looking to exit. She said ‘if you acquire, you get an ongoing successful wine company’.”
In October 2013, Singh flew in from London to sign the deal. As with every aspect of his journey into South Africa, this too had a story.
“On the British Airways plane, the stewardess handed out the menu cards and what do I see on the wine list? Mullineux Wine! Again, I felt like a kid in a toy shop.”
Singh says his new venture has made him appreciate wine more. Every year, he visits a new wine-growing area. Last year, he was at Napa Valley in California, and is now a member of The Napa Valley Reserve, one of the world’s biggest wine clubs.
“I have started the whole journey of appreciating wine and the world of lifestyle around wine, which has to do with food and so on. Frankly, now it does not seem so much of an accident as it did before, as actually, it is all the things that I like as a person, and not as a businessman. We give too much emphasis on the aspect of a business person, and too little emphasis on the person. I don’t believe, now at least, that the sole purpose of my life is business,” says Singh.
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“Business is one part of my life but the person is more permanent and more holistic in a manner of speaking. So when I think of myself as a person and my likes and dislikes, and I don’t have many dislikes, what I like most are all the things this life embodies. This place gives me greenery, nature, mountains, fog, and science and technology, as wine-making is all about technology [with regard to] the maturation process, and the way the fruit is extracted. These are the things I like. I don’t like sitting in front of a computer screen trying to trade off the New York Stock Exchange. It’s not my cup of tea. I have therefore really begun to think of this lifestyle, even though my days are busy when I come here. But whilst you may call it work, for me, it’s the most pleasurable thing to do… I am in the moment when I am here. It’s the most restful state for the mind. I feed off natural energy.”
For the moment, until his wine farm and hotels come online, Singh can be found at the Le Quartier Français, where he stays each time he is in Franschhoek. He has blended in well, and earned the town’s respect.
“I am like a local here, everyone is so nice to me,” he says.
“Analjit Singh is a part of the family,” agrees Susan Huxter, the owner of Le Quartier Français. “He is a truly perceptive, inspirational and intriguing individual. We feel [in him] an aura of tranquillity and spirituality that intrigues us and puzzles us at the same time. His journey in Franschhoek will be eventful, exciting and bring a whole new vibrancy to the village, as he is sensitive to his surroundings and the people, and soon – I believe – we will be able to converse with him in Afrikaans.”
Singh’s neighbor at Leeu Estates is Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson, whose property Mont Rochelle, is a luxury hotel and vineyard next door.
Singh says it’s a good thing.
“There is an element of novel excitement in the way Mr Branson lives his life and I hope that zeitgeist of Franschhoek in general and our neighborhood in particular, would benefit from his legendary joie
de vivre.”
Clearly, Singh’s is a story that will keep evolving. The South Africa sojourn is perhaps only the beginning of his journey into Africa.
“The show must go on,” says Singh, even as he is mobbed by locals, admirers and colleagues from India in the little South African wine town he now calls home.

IMG_2067

The man pouring millions into a rich slice  of Africa

The alcohol industry in Africa is an industry dominated by men for the male consumer. Wrong. Triya Govender, the new Brand Manager of Glenlivet single malt whisky in South Africa, says (surprisingly)some of the whisky brands in South Africa are managed by women.
Govender is 31 years old and has been in the alcohol marketing space for four years. According to her, women bring a different perspective to the whisky industry.
“I think the way women understand people [whisky drinkers], or rather, what insights they draw from them differs to men. My inferences about consumers are framed by, but not limited to, my perspective as a woman, which is different to a man. Neither is wrong or more accurate, they’re different and I think diversity of insight and perspective is a good thing because it helps stimulate debate and get the best idea on the table.
“The whisky category in this country is proliferated with brands appealing to more or less the same consumer need and doing so in very similar ways. Cutting through the clutter in order to be seen or heard by the consumer, let alone convincing them, is a big challenge,” says Govender.
She is seeking to expand her market, particularly the female franchise.
“Female franchise refers to the growing female whisky-drinking population in South Africa. These women are changing the face of what is widely considered an ‘all boys club’.”
Born in Durban in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, Govender completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and post-graduation in Marketing Management at the University of Cape Town. She was employed by Microsoft as an online ad operator, followed by managerial positions in British American Tobacco, Brandhouse, Distell and Pernod Ricard where she holds her current position.
“At the time I moved into the alcoholic beverages industry, I was looking for an opportunity to grow my skills in terms of brand building. I felt brand management in this industry really focused on turning consumer insight into relevant brand propositions and this was the area of professional development I was seeking. Plus, it’s a pretty fun industry to be in,” says Govender.
Whether as marketers or consumers, are women in the whisky industry associated with empowerment?
“I’m empowered because I have the freedom to work in any industry I choose. I’m empowered because my voice is heard and I’m empowered because my gender does not dictate my skill, competency or the opportunities I have access to. Being the Brand Manager of Glenlivet is a result of the fact that I’m empowered. I believe the idea of legacy is a powerful personal motivator, it can motivate women [and men] to empower themselves if that’s what it takes to live a life worth remembering for the right reasons,” she adds.
This ethos is one she adopts even in her life as in 2012 she co-foundered the Young Professionals Effect, an organization offering free consulting to NGOs. She is also a manager of the Emagqabini Education Academy in Khayelitsha, a township in South Africa.
“I believe that we will not see any progress in society if we don’t work to improve the lives of all. The positive change I hope to bring about through my involvement in these organizations is the legacy I wish to leave behind.”

IMG_5348-28

‘It’s A Fun Industry’

Globally, there is a growing awareness that gender equality at the top level of business translates into better business. Several high-profile research reports, including those from McKinsey &amp; Co, Catalyst and the World Economic Forum, highlight that organizations with the highest percentage of women on boards outperform others in terms of returns on equity, sales and invested capital.
As a result of this awareness, specific initiatives are being launched to attract and retain top women in the business world. One such initiative is the 30% Club. It was launched in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2010, and its goal is to drive the increase of women on FTSE-100 boards to 30% by the end of 2015. The 30% Club is a group of business leaders committed to achieving better gender balance at all levels of organizations.
The 30% Club asserts that diverse boards make businesses more efficient, effective and ultimately more profitable. So far, progress has been made: it has achieved a steady increase from 12.6% in 2010 to 22.2% currently. In South Africa, however, such progress is lacking.
Sadly, there is still a dearth of women in senior management and board positions. It is not necessarily that the leadership opportunities do not exist, but rather that women are opting for alternative career models outside of the corporate world in search of career progression.
This does not bode well for corporate South Africa. Clearly, organizations are not thinking strategically around how to attract, develop and retain talented female professionals.
Without doubt, a new approach is required. Talent management solutions, for example, should be gender-neutral. Smart organizations understand the benefits of gender equality in the boardroom, but they fail to ‘walk the talk’.
Instead of uttering the right statements in the press, businesses need to develop solutions that offer women (and men) more incentives to remain in the corporate world. While women are no more difficult to employ than men, creativity and innovation needs to be applied to attract and keep the best employees. Following the lead of organizations such as Google Inc., organizations should be creating cultures and career models that attract women and cater to their different workplace needs and requirements.
Deloitte LLP provides an interesting case study – the company has become a leader in workplace innovation with its innovative agile working program. The company allows all employees to request a formal flexible working arrangement and enjoy a block of four weeks of unpaid leave each year.
In the UK, the 30% Club is achieving its aims without mandatory quotas, in line with the belief that voluntary business-led action is the way to achieve meaningful change. In SA, our complex history of mandatory reforms poses critical questions around mandated gender equality.
While the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality (WEGE) draft Bill – which is calling for 50% female representation across all senior and top management positions – is undoubtedly powerful, we believe that if corporates are not voluntarily putting strategies in place to continually attract and retain women, sustainable and meaningful change is unlikely.
Ultimately, the ideal solution requires a cooperative approach between government and business to establish a framework that makes commercial sense. If we look to countries such as Iceland and the Nordic states, where gender equality has been achieved, this type of partnership and framework exists. According to the WEF Gender Gap Report of 2013, the Nordic countries are considered leaders in gender equality. Their labor participation rates for women are amongst the highest in the world and salary gaps between men and women (although still present) are amongst the smallest in the world.
In SA, both government and business simply cannot afford to sit back on this issue and ‘see what happens’. A more proactive and coordinated approach is urgently required. While we wait for the WEGE bill to be enacted into law, and for initiatives like the 30% Club to gain traction, women continue to exit formal employment.
Unsurprisingly, they are turning to more flexible options, like starting their own businesses or managing smaller businesses. Talented female professionals are leaving the corporate world to find and create new business models that suit their goals, preferences and desires. For corporate South Africa, the most worrying part of this equation is that these women are taking their valuable institutional knowledge and much needed skills and experience with them.
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The writer is director of Tuesday Consulting, an executive search firm in Johannesburg.

wendy

Why Corporate SA Needs To Take Action Now

After driving for two-and-a-half hours from the gridlocked Johannesburg to Klerksdorp, a small rural town in the north west of South Africa, we accepted we were lost. In the end, an elderly lady had to escort us to a place few know.
The Klerksdorp School of Gymnastics is where you can find Grace Legote, Africa’s leading rhythmic gymnast who is celebrated in Russia but barely known in her own country. Luckily, we found the 23-year-old Legote warming up with four girls, between the ages of six and 12.
“I have been practicing gymnastics here for the past 12 years; it’s sad people do not know about this place. I sometimes meet local people who recognize my face from media but they don’t know my name,” says Legote.
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A few days later (at the end of May), Legote and her coach, Tatiana Lavrentchouk-Vizer, were to fly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup. This is one of the few competitions standing between Legote and her qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Africa’s hopes lie on her slender shoulders.
“When you really want to qualify, you have to be focused and constantly participate in international competitions. You must compete and compete because you improve in each competition. It’s fine if you don’t win it all but you become competitive,” says Lavrentchouk-Vizer.
For Legote, a second year sports management student at Centurion Academy Sports, the lack of money to compete regularly is a major challenge.
“The goal for Grace is to gain more international exposure, which will improve her international experience and ranking. However, traveling overseas comes at a great financial cost, which is a struggle,” says Anna Hartley, a media and publicity officer for the South African Gymnastics Federation.
Legote first represented her country at the Junior Olympics in Australia in 2005. Despite being the youngest competitor in her category, with only two years in the sport, Legote won two gold medals and a bronze. Her three teammates in Australia are no longer involved in the sport because they lacked support.
In November last year, Legote placed 13th, her personal best, in the Rhythmic Grand Prix in Innsbruck, Austria. She scored above 15 in all four of the apparatus – ball, club, ribbon and hoop. The competition featured the world’s best gymnasts and those that finished in the top 12 were paid.
“Previously, I scored around 15 but I really surprised myself in Austria. I improved. I know I can sustain that feat and reach the 19s. That will be awesome for my [Olympics] preparations,” she says.
Lavrentchouk-Vizer agrees. She says Legote is a rare talent because she started at the age of 11, which is late for gymnastics. The ideal age is six.
“She was born for this sport. She’s supple, she’s flexible, and she doesn’t have issues with her body…The sport is very individual, it depends on an individual’s body. Grace is lucky because her body can go on for another three to five years. Whether she makes it or not, that also depends on the support she gets from her trainers and sponsors. As we speak, she’s in good condition for any competition in the world,” says Lavrentchouk-Vizer.
Legote trains for four hours a day, six days a week. She takes a break on Sundays.
Lavrentchouk-Vizer, her husband, Oleg Vizer, and their three-year-old child, came to South Africa from Russia in 1993. They stayed in a few cities, including Johannesburg, while working for rich families. In 1996, they settled in Klerksdorp and opened the school. Oleg teaches artistic gymnastics to a mixed-sex class. Artistic gymnastics is essential for all gymnasts.
“If you throw your body like that, you don’t care about yourself… That’s not good enough… Doggy tail, no, that’s not cute, I want to see a cute doggy tail. Let’s do it again,” shouts Lavrentchouk-Vizer to her students over the classical music.
Legote says her coach is a perfectionist and a loving mother to them. All the girls gave her warm hugs at the end of their session.
Many of her students have represented their country, but some quit after a few weeks. Sibongile Mjekula finished eighth in the Commonwealth Games in 2010, before retiring in 2012 at the age of 24. Palesa Mohlamme is another 15-year-old South African junior with a bright future.  In 2013, she kept South Africans glued to their screens when she was a semi-finalist on the TV show SA’s Got Talent.
Lavrentchouk-Vizer spotted Legote 12 years ago.
“I used to come here to watch other kids. One day, I was here as usual and this lady picked me from the crowd and asked me to stretch with her. I guess she wanted to see what I could do. I was asked to come the next day and that’s how it all began,” says Legote.
Lavrentchouk-Vizer’s connection to Russian gymnastics has opened up opportunities for Legote. In February, the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation hosted Legote for its 80th anniversary celebrations. She was the only African among athletes from Greece, Korea, Italy, the United States, Spain, Japan, Georgia, Israel and Italy.
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“The country spent $3 million for the event. That’s how big the sport is in Russia. They don’t get why this beauty, this talent is not supported in South Africa,” says Lavrentchouk-Vizer.
Many in Klerksdorp, the town Legote moved to when she was 11, are oblivious that they have a star in their midst. This is despite her being the ‘sportswoman of the year’ in the North West province. She is the first to win this title in three consecutive years.
Regrettably, this talent is likely to go to waste if the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) does not step up to the plate. If Legote qualifies for the Olympic Games, she’ll have to wait and see if SASCOC decides to let her compete.
“It is very frustrating. I don’t think SASCOC puts in enough money to develop the sport, but I don’t know how they work with the federation,” says Legote.
Tseko Mogotsi, the Chief Operations Officer at the South African Gymnastics Federation, says the sponsorships they have are not enough to send Legote to the Olympics. But Mogotsi says SASCOC has an obligation to sponsor her if she qualifies in the top 20. Legote is in the third tier of SASCOC’s Operation Excellence (Opex) program for funding and support, he says.
Whether this African queen of rhythmic gymnastics will live her dream of competing at the Olympic Games, sadly depends on people with deep pockets rather than her talent.

Grace-058

Africa’s Golden girl Who Has To Beg for Nickels

Caroline Wöstmann is like an energizer bunny, always on the go. She barely breaks a sweat as she jets up the unending flight of steps to her office kitted in running gear. The 32-year-old mother of two won the women’s race earlier this year at the 56 kilometer Two Oceans ultra-marathon in Cape Town. She ran the distance in three hours, 41 minutes and 23 seconds, becoming the first South African woman  to win in 14 years.
A lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Wöstmann only started running six years ago, to alter her lifestyle after giving birth to her first child. She’s not a professional marathoner.
At first, she began by running around her neighborhood in Pretoria, South Africa, where she lives. The first day was a challenge but she soon found a rhythm to the routine.
“Running allows you to relate to everyone. You can understand the dream to win just as you understand the dream to just finish a race. It’s so individual. Everyone can experience the same amount of joy or devastation,” she says.
Her first attempt at the ultra-marathon in 2013 was a harrowing experience. The weeks of intense training gave her a stress fracture. Not knowing the extent of her injuries, she ignored the pain and ran the marathon.
“During the race, the pain got so bad, I couldn’t walk anymore. Eventually I managed to hobble to the end and finish but I found out that week that my fibula was actually broken.”
Wöstmann was hesitant to do the race again, the memory of her fracture still fresh. She began a rehabilitation program, working on her muscle imbalances.
“Maybe naturally I wasn’t built strong enough but by doing strength work and training and fixing those imbalances, I was able to train harder,” she says.
Although her focus is on the Comrades Marathon (at the end of May), the world&#8217;s largest and oldest ultra-marathon run annually in KwaZulu-Natal, a province in South Africa, she is using local marathons as training platforms.
“Two Oceans was just meant to be training for my Comrades build-up. I had one of those days where everything fell into place. If you get an opportunity like that, you can’t bypass it. I was having the best run of my life.”
The Two Oceans route includes a breathtaking view of the sea to Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay and Constantia Nek. With the recent fires in Cape Town, which began in Muizenberg fanned by strong winds that soon spread to Ou Kaapse Weg, Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay and Tokai, the Two Oceans route had to be changed to include a steeper incline.
“It was a much easier route for me because my bone wasn’t broken,” she laughs now.
Recharged after her recent win, she is working towards her next goal – coming in the top three at the Comrades. Juggling lectures, a family and her sport, every day is a marathon for her and she’s in it to win.

Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultra Marathon 56km race

The Best Run Of Her Life

While the ink is punctured into his skin, a middle-aged man, with his arm resting on the chair, smiles and chats nonchalantly to his wife. She is waiting patiently for her turn. Both have a carefree demeanour as they get scripts tattooed on their arms. Another lies with his hands behind his head as if he were lying on the beach.
These unusually relaxed people are inside Fallen Heroes, a tattoo studio on one of the busiest streets in Parkhurst, a suburb in Johannesburg. Inside, the constantly buzzing machines compete with the music and chatter in the background. The scent of freshly-brewed coffee wafts through the air as the artists concentrate on their masterpieces.
Beautiful artwork adorns the walls, everything is immaculately clean and there is a tidy little garden at the back. It is strangely soothing and couldn’t be further from the grimy parlours seen in movies.
“It’s fun for me, it’s not really a job. I come to work and I color in,” says Jinx, one of the artists at Fallen Heroes.
Ethel Laka recently opened her own tattoo shop near Auckland Park in Johannesburg. Ethel’s Tattoo Studio is surrounded by creative businesses, vibey restaurants and bakeries. She is the only artist in her studio.
“I’m very comfortable with solitude,” she says.
Laka is an artist that chooses to use skin as her canvas.
“I love the skin tones and the shades they give. You can get so many different hues on different colored skins,” she says.
She also enjoys the social aspect of her profession.
“The human interaction is wonderful. It’s priceless stuff. You meet people every day and it’s fulfilling when you blow their minds. I live for things like that.”
“People want to connect; they want to talk to you. And it’s the vibe in the shop, the music, the attitude, how you treat them. Every day is different.”
Although they love their work, the life of a tattoo artist is not all play.
“Tattooing is really hard and humbling. It can be very discouraging because there are so many variables and you can feel like you’re getting it wrong a lot of the time,” says La, another artist at Fallen Heroes.
“It’s quite stressful sometimes but I don’t get too nervous anymore,” says Candi, also of Fallen Heroes.
“Everyone thinks we have a rock star lifestyle and go and get drunk and party. It’s not like that. You come in to work and tattoo from 10 ‘til six, then you go home, do designs, go to sleep and come back. It consumes your life,” says Jinx, who says if she had her way she would have dropped out of school to be a tattoo artist.
“My mom had a brain and made me finish.”
These women defy convention, especially in South Africa, which Laka describes as conservative. All have tattoos on their body. Although it is rare, they occasionally get judged because of the artwork on their bodies.
“Sometimes I’ll be in a mall and parents will put their kids behind them like I’m going to steal their child! I get mixed reviews and it’s from one extreme to the next,” says Jinx.
Glen Hodgson, the bassist in multi-platinum selling South African band, The Parlotones, gets some of his tattoos done by Marisa Noordergraaf at Tattoolya and Meghan Potgieter at True Blue Tattoos. Even though he is a rock star, his tattoos generate strange reactions.
“I get a lot of double takes; in the shops, at the golf course. Kids just stare at me! Everyone asks me if they’re permanent. It’s like they have never seen a tattoo before. Once, a lady at the check-in counter at an airport in Botswana took one look at me and outright refused to serve me! I’ve had people in shops try to ‘save me’ too. One guy told me I need to tattoo Jesus in my heart. I said, ‘It’s okay, I’ve already got him on my arm’. It seems that a lot of people just assume you’re trouble because you have tattoos,” says Hodgson.
Despite these reactions, tattoos are becoming more popular.
“It’s very hip. I’m amazed by how popular it is now. I never thought my most profitable enterprise in business would be tattooing,” says La.
“Media has a big part to play in it. People see television programs, like Miami Ink and Tattoo Nightmares, and come in the next day and want the same thing done. They want to come in and hold your hand; they want to cry about it because the girl on TV was crying about it… It’s free advertising, I love it,” says Laka.
Social media also creates business for these artists. The most common tattoo designs can be found there.
“If you look on Pinterest, anything on there. We have a lot of infinity signs and the birds bursting out of the feather,” says La.
“Hopefully that trend will go away quite soon,” says Jinx.
Laka gets the same requests and says it can get tedious, but she accepts it because she sees herself doing a service.
“You get tired of it, but wow, when you get a chance to do that outrageous eye the size of a ruler, or a bloody skull! Those are the things that inspire us,” says Laka, ever a fan of the macabre.
“Some things you want to do for the artistic value. A skull and the blood and the maggots would make a great tattoo but you can’t sell it to everybody.”
There is still some taboo associated with permanently inking your skin.
“There is an awareness about placement because people are worried about their jobs. Or in the case of women, their husbands don’t want them to be too big,” says La.
“A lot of people think that tattoos ruin your body, especially on a woman. It’s getting better but there will always be closed-minded people in the world,” adds Candi.
Health issues can be a problem. Pain and swelling can occur as well as infections, such as hepatitis.
“I’ve seen them and they happen a lot more than people like to admit. The problem is people get tattoos from unhygienic studios,” says Laka.
“There are three or four sterilizing processes that happen before you can start with the tattoo. Also, the needles are one-use needles. Other than the machine and the grip, everything gets thrown away,” says Jinx.
The artists also have to be wary about clients that are pregnant or on blood-thinning medication.
Post her interview with us, La noticed a small bump on her client’s stomach and had to turn her away after finding out she was an expectant mother.
A lot of people don’t get tattoos because they think it won’t look good as they get older.
“When I’m 80 years old, I’m probably going to be worrying about a hip replacement rather than what I look like. I’m also not going to be running on the beach in a bikini,” says Jinx.
“By the time I’m wrinkly, it’ll be normal for people to have tattoos,” says Candi.
People sometimes try and find a personal meaning to get a tattoo but the artists say you need to be careful about this.
“Meaning fluctuates and you change while your skin stays your skin. Tattoos should be decorative,” says La.
“If you enjoy a picture or a piece of art, you don’t need to link it with anything. Most of my tattoos are just pictures that I found along the way,” says Jinx.
Tattoos can be more than decorative though. They are often used to transform the scars on women who have had mastectomies.
Laka says she has done many areolar reconstruction tattoos and is happy to help women restore their confidence. Being a woman tattoo artist helps with this work.
“If a client wants a tattoo on their breast or has had breast cancer, they tend to go to a woman because they feel more comfortable,” says Jinx.
Whatever the reason for getting them, tattoos are becoming more popular. Candi is reluctant to call it a trend though.
“Tattoos last forever, trends don’t.”

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The Rock Stars Of Body Art

South Africa’s Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955. The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990. The United Kingdom followed five years later with the Disability Discrimination Act. Yet where are all the great leaders championing access for people with hearing loss?
Nelson Mandela wore hearing aids but he is only known for overcoming apartheid in South Africa. Malala Yousafzai wears a cochlear implant, but she never mentions it when she speaks about educating girls. Academy Award Winner and actress Jodie Foster stood up at the Oscars to declare she was a lesbian but never mentioned she wears a hearing aid despite its prominence in a Daily Mail photograph.
There are 360 million people worldwide with some form of hearing loss. How can an issue be so pervasive but with no recognizable role models or leaders? There are great advocates within the insular hearing loss community but no person who captivates the world.
Why are people willing to discuss their race, religion, gender, age and sexual orientation but unwilling to discuss their hearing loss? Is hearing loss so stigmatized that we have created what Dr Julie Gurner, a leadership consultant, calls a “culture of shame”? She explains: “Prominent figures hide their hearing loss so perhaps other people feel maybe they should hide theirs as well.” The press ridiculed Prince Philip when he was first seen wearing hearing aids.
The media’s handling of hearing loss and other disabilities is part of the problem. Their coverage is typically focused on inspirational stories. The person appears as a “Super Crip”. Just think of all the YouTube videos featuring children hearing their parents’ voice for the first time as their cochlear implant is activated. The message communicated is: look how this amazing “crippled” person overcame this horrible obstacle, and so now you too can conquer whatever is preventing you from achieving success. We might as well have the person wear a cape like a superhero.
The media also likes sensational photographs of people with disabilities. The most notable being when American activists crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to show it was the only way to enter a building that lacked ramps. The public seems to respond only to dramatic activism or a “moment” rather than common sense.
We shouldn’t need a “moment” to engender the change that is so desperately needed globally. Hearing loss shuts people out invisibly. Their needs are just as pressing and should be addressed globally.
Part of the problem is a lack of understanding that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to communication access. The following three-prong approach should be offered whenever there is live voice or recorded audio: assistive listening systems such as an induction loop, captioning, and qualified interpreters.
For people with hearing loss, communication access is their “ramp”. South Africa’s Apartheid Museum and Robben Island do not have effective access for people with hearing loss despite being monuments to eradicating discrimination. The museums claim tight finances prevent them from providing access. But that is the same unacceptable excuse used during apartheid by white people for why they couldn’t provide books to black children. Such excuses weren’t acceptable then and aren’t now.
People with hearing loss cannot become leaders when they aren’t included in society. According to Dean Williams, a faculty member of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and author of Leadership for a Fractured World, “A person needs to expand their personal boundaries in order to lead.” Museums provide valuable opportunities for enlightenment and critical thinking that foster such expansion.
The Apartheid Museum and Robben Island museums need to provide effective access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing so they too can benefit from the enrichment that is being offered. We need to inspire the next great leaders and role models of our world.
The writer is based in New York and is CEO of Hearing Access &amp; Innovations, which works to improve accessibility for people with hearing loss.

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Who Are The  Role Models Since Helen Keller?

The music industry in South Africa for local artistes is not easy to navigate. LeAnne Dlamini should know, having been in it for almost 20 years now, she has done it all to find her own niche. Yet, does she have it all?
“In South Africa, I think people get so used to seeing your face and hearing your voice, that you are almost nothing to them anymore, and when you go outside the country, you get appreciated more which is so sad,” she rues.
Dlamini lived in Dubai and Los Angeles for a number of years before realizing the harsh truth that people back home were soon forgetting her.
“When you are out of sight, you are out of mind, that’s why I needed to come back.” But she also saw opportunity in returning home.
“I saw the potential. Other places are developed already, they have everything they need. I needed to come back to SA and be the next best thing in RnB because it is lacking [here]. Africa is definitely where it is happening. It doesn’t matter if everyone in LA knows you if back home no one knows who you are,” says Dlamini.
Growing up in a middle class family in Eldorado Park, one of Johannesburg’s infamous colored neighborhoods, Dlamini’s career began at the age of 13. She was part of the church choir, and also started a girl group in high school called Cherry.
“We wanted to be the Destiny’s Child of South Africa, but that didn’t happen, we hustled, went to record labels, everyone thought we were crazy,” says Dlamini.
The group did not make it but at least Dlamini’s solo career took off. She started singing for famous local artistes, one of them being Loyiso Bala.
“That’s when I was bitten by the bug, just being around Loyiso, just being in that studio environment, I loved it,” says Dlamini.
When she was only 22, Dlamini married her producer, Sipho Dlamini. While being a mother (she has two children) and wife will always be her first priority, it did somewhat lead her away from the path to stardom.
“I felt like my career needed a boost. But I wanted to do something that was out of my comfort zone. I didn’t want to record a track with a hip hop artiste or a house DJ, I wanted to do something I wouldn’t necessarily do here [in South Africa],” says Dlamini.
And she chose an offbeat route to make a comeback. In 2012, Dlamini packed her bags and headed to the United Kingdom, to enter the X Factor reality show. She received praise from the judges and qualified for the next round, almost making it to the final stages of the competition.
“Just for me to be there and hear the producers and judges tell me that was great, it was a boost,” says Dlamini.
It was just what she needed.
“I am now 30 and I can fully dive into my career and I feel like now is when my life is fully beginning. It feels like this is the first album that I’ve ever done. It’s insane,” says Dlamini.
And she proved just how ready she was in 2014 when she participated in Strictly Come Dancing South Africa. Dlamini made it to the semifinals, before she and her dance partner were sent home.
She is now working on her third album and hopes to release it later in the year.
Determined to be the superstar, Dlamini’s journey has been a long one and if she were to do it all over again, she would, she has no regrets.

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If Not Destiny’s Child, Then What?

Here’s a clichéd question: does femininity have a place in the corporate world?
Melinda Bam, Miss South Africa 2011 and brand ambassador for Veet, says it absolutely does. Along with her business partner Anja Van Zyl, a model and media personality, she launched ‘Womentality: A Fearless Feminine Program and Workshop’ in 2013 to inspire and instil in young girls, mothers and working women that femininity and confidence are a woman’s greatest assets.
It was during her reign as Miss South Africa that Bam found her true purpose: to inspire women in the corporate space.
“We think we have to offer up our femininity and disregard that aspect of what it means to be a woman in order to be taken seriously,” says Bam.
“We saw women who didn’t want to be women, who wanted to sacrifice too much of themselves because they thought they were going to get ahead. We want to coach women back to being themselves, and finding that their strength comes from that.”
Her workshops focus on the frivolous and the fun, while still tackling issues women struggle to discuss with men.
“There is [nothing] more intimidating in the corporate world than a beautiful, strong and confident woman,” says Bam. More than anything, the workshops are forums of discussion.
“Femininity has no age, it has no face, it has no color; it sees no boundaries. It’s something that should just be embraced,” says Bam. Touché.

Tag: June 2015

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