Daniel Guasco and Wayne Gosling left South Africa for the United Kingdom, but only met when they both returned to South Africa to do an MBA at the University of Cape Town. These two entrepreneurs launched South African group buying website Twangoo, which was purchased 125 days after it opened, by the global leader in the industry, Groupon.
The name Twangoo comes from a Chinese term Tuangou, which means ‘team buying’. The story goes that for years in China, several people would approach a vendor as a group to get discounts. This strategy has been recreated online and is a booming business, according to tech website webgeekly.com: “Websites like Groupon are making a killing by taking small percentages off each offer purchased.” Groupon is a portmanteau derived from ‘group’ and ‘coupon’.
Guasco and Gosling first got the idea after attending a launch at the Silicon Cape Initiative, in Cape Town. The event is based on Silicon Valley in California, where many global IT companies were born.
“At the launch, I saw a number of very successful online tech entrepreneurs and a lot of talk about what’s happening online. And I couldn’t write a word of code [and was] not tech-oriented in any way. Both our backgrounds are entrepreneurial [… ] In 2009, Groupon was just starting to come onto the radar and really becoming big in the States. And then on January 3, the evaluation of Groupon came out with a billion US dollars […] We then went on to form an alliance with some other MBA guys and formed a partnership with them to start up what was then known as Twangoo here in SA,” says Gosling.
With R10,000 ($1,130) between them, they launched Twangoo in 2010 and within 125 days they were bought out by Groupon for an undisclosed amount.
“The cool thing about Twangoo [and] Dan and I is that we’ve never met the guys that bought the website. We never met the guy that helped finance us. We only met afterwards, once we’d sold the business […] The developer is actually Russian. It shows it can be done if you put your mind to it,” says Gosling.
Groupon was launched in 2008 by Andrew Mason, a final-year university student, who had caught the eye of entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky. He recognized Mason’s potential, after the student created a social initiatives platform, which evolved into Groupon.
“Ironically, when we started Groupon, we were thinking of it as this sort of discount site that will be the business model, the tail that wags the dog. But we hear from so many of our users how great it’s been for their lives, that it’s helping them get out of the house or the city and really enjoy their lives […],” Mason had said in an interview with ChicagoBusiness.com.
However, despite being CEO for four and a half years, Mason was fired in February, after the company had a number of disappointing quarterly earnings. The New York Times reported that Groupon was valued at $16.5 billion, when it went public in late 2011. By February, its value had dropped to $2.97 billion. Many shared the sentiment that Mason’s dismissal was long overdue.
On a global scale, however, Groupon is expanding—it has websites in 49 countries, but only one in Africa for the time being.
“It’s part of the bigger Groupon picture […] I think South Africa is still such a huge opportunity. I think the other challenge, as well, is mobile. We’ve launched quite a big initiative in South Africa around mobile,” says Guasco.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride starting an online-based business in a country such as South Africa, which, according to the World Bank, has 6.2 million internet users—12% of the population.
“Either the internet connection doesn’t work at home; it’s obviously very costly so it’s limited us to some degree, even though it’s taken off really well in this country. It’s still a challenge given that you need a smartphone type-enabled phone to really allow you to benefit to how Groupon is currently positioned,” says Gosling.
If they plan to expand across the continent, they need to take note of the other top nine internet users in Africa in 2012: Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda
Groupon has a lot of competition in South Africa alone, which shows that the middle class is growing and spending.
<h4>Other Top Group Buying Sites In South Africa</h4>
• www.dealclick.co.za 
• www.ubuntudeal.co.za 
• www.studentspecials.net 
• www.salewine.co.za 
• www.wicount.co.za 
• www.citymob.co.za 
• www.24hoursonly.co.za 
• www.onedayonly.co.za 
• www.wekidunot.co.za 
• www.sacoupons.co.za 
• www.daddysdeals.co.za 
• www.cityslicker.co.za 
• www.collectivecow.com 
• www.ucit.co.za 
• www.schweetdeal.co.za 
• www.youdeal.co.za 
• www.vuvuplaza.co.za

Mob Shopping Makes  The Wallet Thicker

It was a name that took less than two years to build. Wakaberry, inspired by the 2010 Soccer World Cup anthem ‘Waka Waka’, with a sales turnover of more than R25 million ($2.8 million) a year from 13 stores around South Africa, with nine more on the way.
The company is the fruit of the labor of the Fouries. Michele studied to be a primary school teacher, while her husband, Ken, played rugby for the Natal Sharks. In 1998, Ken received a professional contract to play for Leicester Tigers and they moved to the United Kingdom. They later relocated to Wales, when Ken was offered a long-term contract with the Cardiff Blues. During that time, Michele completed a Master of Science Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Cardiff became a second home to the Fouries but five years later, when Ken’s contract was up, they decided to move to the United States.
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“We traveled to the States a couple of times on holiday and I think that by nature we always like fresh challenges; we’re definitely the type of people that don’t like to sit somewhere forever. So we kind of find new challenges and really liked North Carolina.”
In 2005, the couple moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where they bought a restaurant, appropriately named Ken’s Bagels.
“That was probably our biggest move in terms of being entrepreneurs—going into a completely unknown field, into an unknown country. And only about three weeks into the actual process of looking for a business to buy did we discover the name of the particular business and I said if that’s not a sign then I don’t know.”
Two years later, after acquiring the business know-how that they needed, they decided to open their own restaurant—Café Brava. It served everything from Rooibos tea to Ouma rusks.
“We’d been open probably about six months with Café Brava and got to know the relatively small South African community in North Carolina and seen again that there was this market for South African products. So we did the research and found a company that does the importing for the big stores in Atlanta and New York and we were able to have a little selection of South African food stuff,” says Michele.
The business did very well but the recession of 2008 was a game changer for the Fouries. Michele admits that it was something she would never want to experience again but as tough as it was, it was a lesson.
“It was very difficult in the States. We’d lived through kind of both sides: the boom of 2007 and 2008, where retail was riding high. It was relatively easy, by the end of 2009, to see businesses that were booming pretty much shut up shop within a two-month period. Having lived through that has made us cautious financially and aware that success of today does not mean success of tomorrow.”
The couple moved back to Durban, after their daughters were born, to be closer to their family. When they arrived, the Fouries contacted their friend David Clark, who owned a shipping business, to oversee transport logistics. They noticed that there was gap in the market in South Africa for frozen yogurt. They had seen how it sold overseas and the three entrepreneurs decided to go into business.
“We were lucky enough, we were able to sell our existing business in the States before we left and we used the funds from that to fund Wakaberry. We self-funded the initial store, set up in Durban, in Florida Road, and have done that since day one. It was never funded through bank loans; it was all our personal money and blood, sweat and tears that had gone into every step of it.”
The franchise works on a self-service, pay-by-weight concept. Mixed berry, kiwi, watermelon, strawberry and vanilla are a few of the yogurt flavors, which can be topped up from the candy bar filled with sweets, chocolates and fruits. However, according to Michele, franchising was never the plan.
“It was really born out of necessity. Florida Road was open for three months and just became so busy that we had to open a second store, which we also owned—the Durban North store. From there, we just were receiving so many queries on a daily basis at our office and from customers that it came out of customer demand.”
For a market as young as this, new legislation can play a huge part in the future of the business. In February, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries published a set of requirements for different types of edible ices, including frozen yogurt, which will be phased in over 12 months. Michele believes that as important as these regulations are, a lot more still has to be done.
“So people that say they have got natural yogurt where it’s made with powder, they will not be allowed to do that anymore. I think it’s a good starting point but I think even the authors of the legislation would agree that there’s still a long way to go in terms of the class of edible items or frozen desserts. Though there are internationally accepted standards in terms of the percentage of the bio cultures and probiotics that have to be present in any dairy to be classified as yogurt. It’s very technical but that is what they’re trying to achieve in the long run of finding a base level of a classification for yogurt.”
For the Fouries, it is merely another obstacle on the road walked by the true entrepreneur.

Waka Waka This Time For Africa

When you look at the man, you wonder how Peter ‘Fats’ Lazarides ever acquired his nickname. He has plenty to be pleased about after having started the South African Ocean Basket seafood franchise from scratch. Aside from power cuts, Lazarides says the biggest challenge is managing queues, the waiters and kitchen staff.
“The turnover has been there. I always say people have to eat.”
Another worry is the Fish and Chips outlets that try to tempt weekend diners away from his tables. It’s just one of the many trials he’s experienced during his 18 years in the business.
Lazarides, his brother, George, and a third partner, George Nichas, opened their first Ocean Basket restaurant in Pretoria, sitting a mere 30 people.
Lazarides worked at a supermarket, while he was looking for a place to set up shop. A phone call from his wife alerted him that she had found a place. The only problem was 40 other people were after the lease.
With the simple idea of serving seafood in a pan, in his head, Lazarides set out to talk to the leaser, whom he convinced of the unheard-of idea.
Five months later, on April 12, 1995, the first store opened at Menlyn Park Shopping Center, in Pretoria, but with strict limitations on their five-year lease. The contract stated that the restaurant could only sell one type of wine and two types of cold drinks. No desserts or salads were allowed and the store had shorter opening hours. With the odds stacked against them, the restaurant became a surprise hit. People queued for the fresh seafood and brought along with them their own bread, salads and cold drinks.
“I think it’s just a drive, basically for me it was a drive to do something very successful in my life and it doesn’t mean the first thing I did, turned out to be successful,” says Lazarides.
Their business model was to sell inexpensive seafood in shopping centers surrounded by large numbers of homes.
The knowledge to run this fast-growing franchise didn’t come overnight. Lazarides dropped out of school in grade eight, then tried to return to complete grade 10, but says it was a disaster. He thought he’d be lucky on the third attempt at college to finish grades 11 and 12 but he simply wasn’t interested enough in his studies. Instead, in 1977, he went to sea to his compulsory national service.
This was during South Africa’s apartheid-era conscription, when young men would do their national service and then have around 10 years of call-ups. While with the Navy, he talked his way out of the call-ups and managed to get an exemption to allow a short service of only three years.
Back on land, Lazarides drew on his Grecian roots of running cafés, coffee shops and corner shops.
He dabbled with the idea of running a restaurant, in 1981, while working at an establishment at Sun City holiday resort, in the North West province. He returned to Pretoria to learn two trades—one from his father, who was a carpenter, and the other on how to be a plumber and shop fitter. But he was still confused about what he wanted to do with his life.
Then came the epiphany in Menlyn Park. Ocean Basket was to become an international success story with 165 stores worldwide. He attributes the restaurants’ success to their strict focus on seafood.
The seafood franchise has opened restaurants in Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Mauritius. In late 2012, Nigeria saw its first Ocean Basket open in the upmarket area of Victoria Island, in Lagos.
The partners returned to their Mediterranean roots on the island of Cyprus in 2008, where six stores  and a distribution center were opened.
There’s even a high-speed sushi bar at Africa’s biggest international airport in Johannesburg—O.R. Tambo.
There are plans to expand to petrol stations across South Africa. The experiment has begun in Middleburg, south west of Johannesburg, as well as Cyprus. Lazarides hopes to expand the project.
The partners plan to open at least 200 stores by the end of 2014 and another 200 during the following 10 years, by expanding into Ghana, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
The group’s global turnover is around R2 billion ($224.1 million) for the stores and the four warehouses. An Ocean Basket establishment makes, on average, nearly R8.5 million ($952,000) a year, while the setup costs are about R2.5 million ($270,500). Lazarides wants more people to buy into his franchise; he is encouraging them to do so by cutting the setup cost by 20%.
As the seafood retail space gets more competitive with the popping up of many over-the-counter fish-and-chips outlets and other seafood restaurants, Lazarides says this will not put a damper on his expansion plans.
He believes his three-step recipe to success: good food, good service and good price will keep customers returning to Ocean Basket. At least now they don’t need to bring their own salads.

Fats Fishing For A Fortune

He was young, ambitious, eager… and bored most of the time. At the age of 24, Allen Ambor had held a few corporate jobs here and there but hated every minute of it.
“I was bored out of my wits,” he recalls.
The last time he had fun working was when he waited tables in a steak house to finance his studies. That’s when he decided that he was going to open his own restaurant.
It started with many challenges. Ambor had saved $215, a fair amount of cash back in 1967, but it wasn’t even a tenth of what he needed. Fresh out of university, he struggled to get a loan or lease for the premises he had found in Cape Town.
“Nobody was willing to sign surety for me,” he says.
It took 18 tough months until his persistence paid off. Ambor was ready to open the first Spur steak ranch, a business that would grow into one of Africa’s top restaurant chains.
The obstacles didn’t end there. Ambor had planned to open a franchise of the Johannesburg steak house he used to work at, but the owners let him down just a few days before the launch. They didn’t send the nine employees they had promised to train or any of the kitchen supplies.
“They didn’t have the faintest clue about how to franchise,” he remembers.
Ambor quickly had to come up with a Plan B. Between his girlfriend, who was a good cook, his mother’s food chemist friend and himself, he whipped up various sauces and dressings, which were later to become signature condiments of the business.
To top it all off, Ambor did not receive the promised décor, either. Within days, he had to design his own decoration and logo. In line with the cowboy and crooks theme of most steak houses at that time, he decided on the image of a cowboy boot’s golden spur, which also became the restaurant’s name.
Ambor only changed the logo to the brand’s current Red Indian insignia in the mid-1980s, at the height of apartheid.
“I wanted to give a signal to people of color that they were welcome in our businesses. The Red Indian is spiritual, highly respected and had also been wronged,” he says.
Even though redesigning a company logo bears high risk of losing brand recognition, Ambor felt it was a good move: “It was a gut feel and it turned out to be the right thing at the right time”.
For more than four decades, he would trust his instincts as much as his business acumen and thus grow Spur into a $35.9 million global brand with 240 local and 29 international restaurants, including in the United Kingdom, Australia and a range of African countries: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“I don’t just work with a calculator. In the restaurant business, it’s gotta come from the heart. If you are only worried about the back pocket, it’s not going to work,” he says.
Ambor understood right from the start that making customers happy is the most important aspect of any restaurant business.
“Consistency, delivery and caring are the key things it comes down to,” he says.
That meant giving customers value for money, even if profit margins were not as high as they could have been. For three years after opening his first Spur, Ambor didn’t increase the menu prices.
“It was a signal that we weren’t just out for profit. I wanted to let my customers know that I was loyal to them, hoping they would also be loyal to me.”
The model worked. Spur Corporation set out on a fast-paced expansion strategy. Ambor sold his first franchise four years after opening the first steak house. Today, a franchise license for Spur costs R100,000 ($10,800). In the late 1980s, he added two more family restaurants to the mix: Panarottis pizza pasta and John Dory’s fish and grill. A year ago, Spur Corporation entered the fast food sector when it acquired DoRego’s, which has 75 outlets across South Africa, for R30 million.
“We are constantly innovating,” says Ambor.
But most of all, it was a lot of hard work, says Ambor. He never shied away from getting his own hands dirty and was known for running a tight ship. For years, he worked 20-hour days, setting an example for his employees while training them on the job. Not everyone was pleased to have an employer constantly breathing down their necks.
“People who didn’t like it, left. But those who bought into what we were doing stayed and became pillars of the organization,” says Ambor.
Many of Spur Corporations’ managers started out as waiters in one of the restaurants. One of them is Pierre van Tonder, who began as junior store manager in 1982 and took over the reins last year, when Ambor, at the age of 70, stepped down as CEO.
“You’ve got to be responsible and make sure there is succession,” explains Ambor, who has taken on the role of executive chair.
He now starts his days with yoga and spends only an average of five hours a day at the office. But whoever thinks Ambor is taking it easy couldn’t be more wrong: “I might only be at my desk for a few hours each day, but my head is going all the time”.

SPUR-ed  On By Boredom

Guinea, a mining capital in West Africa, faces great economic problems as it heads into parliamentary elections next month. The country faces ethnic tensions, threats to democracy and economic instability.
When it comes to resources, Guinea could be regarded as one of Africa’s richest countries. Rich in minerals, hydropower and agriculture, Guinea also holds almost half of the world’s bauxite as well as substantial amounts of iron ore, gold and diamonds. These resources remain under exploited.
Reforms are underway with tighter monetary policy and budget. According to the African Economic Outlook, in 2011 the Guinean economy progressed after the return to constitutional government. This saw real GDP peak at 4%. Despite government’s strict budget policy and determination to curb credit, inflation remained at a high of 21.2% in 2011. It is predicted to drop to 10.1% in 2013.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) have supported Guinea in its effort to gain debt relief. Combined, the IMF and IDA contributed $2.1 billion to the country in 2012.
In October 2011, the African Development Bank (AfDB) backed 77 Guinea operations which were worth approximately $818 million. These operations included: 58 projects, nine studies, seven institutional support operations and three non-project loans.
With the economic challenges faced by Guinea, this year’s elections will be regarded as a beacon of light for the country and will hopefully bring change to the nation. The eyes of the world will be on the country as they vote for their president.
President Alpha Condé, 75, was elected in 2010 in the first credible democratic elections since the West African nation gained independence from French rule in 1958, but parliamentary elections that would see Guinea’s full transition to civilian rule have been delayed for almost two years. The vote was originally scheduled for May 12 but elections have now been delayed until June 30, 2013.
In late February thousands of supporters of the leading opposition party, Union des Forces Démocratiques de Guinée (UFDG), took to the streets accusing Condé and his ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Guinéen (RPG) of attempting to rig the vote. Nine were killed in clashes with security forces and hundreds injured in the riots. The UFDG is backed by the Peul, the largest ethnic group in Guinea, whose supporters accuse Condé’s government of politically favoring the Malinke, the second largest ethnic group in the country.
With the opposition walking out of talks with the government that were organized in the aftermath of the violence, and calling for further protests and strikes, international observers are concerned that Guinea could further descend into violence and derail the nation’s journey to democratic rule.
Guinea’s main opposition leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, who lost to Condé in a tight presidential run-off in November 2010, said the opposition would do everything to stop the election if it was held without them, according to a report by Reuters. Analysts say this is a troubling sign.
Vincent Foucher, a senior analyst for West Africa at International Crisis Group told FORBES AFRICA that the political standoff could setback Guinea’s economic gains.
“If they blow this one there is a very serious possibility that people in the armed forces could say, ‘You politicians are not able to handle those democracy things so we [will] step back in,’ and that would bring us back to 2008 which would be a real shame,” says Foucher.
He adds that basic consensus on the electoral process must be achieved for the elections to go ahead.
“The situation is so tense that I do not believe that full consensus is possible.”
Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinea’s first president, was a firebrand socialist who rejected Charles de Gaulle’s offer of integration into the Franco-African community. Touré ran an authoritarian government for over 20 years in which torture, arrests and executions were commonplace.
After an unsuccessful invasion led by Portuguese Guinea, now Guinea-Bissau, Touré became increasingly paranoid, accusing the Peul population of attempting to overthrow the government. After his death in 1984, a group of army generals staged a military coup and Lansana Conté became president, and was followed by Moussa Dadis Camara in 2008.
Guinea came into the international spotlight in the aftermath of the September 28, 2009 massacre of some 150 opposition protestors and the rape of more than 100 women by security forces during the military regime of Dadis Camara. The International Criminal Court is currently investigating the case but Human Rights Watch has said the government needs to do more to bring those responsible to justice.
Due to mounting international pressure, Guinea held its first democratic presidential election in 2010. International observers deemed the elections free and fair but they were marred by ethnic rivalry and clashes between civilians and security forces.
Foucher says there have been significant moves away from the tyranny and turmoil of the past but that Guinea still has a long way to go.
“There are some interesting developments and you could say there is a dialog about electoral institutions.”
In addition to its bauxite reserves, Guinea has large iron ore, gold and diamond deposits and has long been on the radar for international investors and multinational mining companies. Upon taking office, Condé promised to redevelop the mining sector and review existing mining contracts signed under previous military dictatorships.
In 2011, Condé revised Guinea’s mining code to allow the government to take a minimum of 15% of shares in mining companies operating on its soil, with an option to buy a further 20%. The government has set up a review body to look into previous mining contracts and overhaul the mining code that determines the role the state plays in governing the industry.
Resources watchdog Revenue Watch Institute, funded by billionaire George Soros, is advising the Guinean government on transparency and how to better negotiate with large mining companies. Leading development economist Paul Collier is also an advisor to the government and Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative has a presence in the country.
In an interview last year with The Guardian, president Condé, a former pro-democracy activist, said he would be “The Obama and Mandela of Guinea” and that he would transform the nation into a stable and developed democracy. But analysts say Guinea’s future stability will largely depend on his ability to negotiate with the opposition and build trust around the electoral process.
Guinea is emerging from a long period of political instability and the socio-political situation remains uncertain. Political differences concern the future of the electoral process and financial and logistical problems.

A Test For  Guinea’s  Fledgling  Democracy

Diplomatic channels between South Africa and Mozambique have come alive with activity over the vexed question of rhino poaching. The poachers use Mozambique as a springboard for their deadly sorties across the border into the Kruger National Park. South Africa’s flagship reserve, with an estimated 12,000 rhinos, is one of the world’s great sanctuaries for the endangered species.
High-level meetings are scheduled between the conservation authorities of the two countries, to inspect conditions along the boundary where the incursions happen. This is a marked difference from the arms-length exchanges, since the outbreak of poaching three years ago.
Mozambique and Vietnam—the biggest suppliers, to Asia, of the highly prized rhino-horn powder—received stern criticism at the March meeting of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), in Bangkok, Thailand. The South African delegation pleaded for international assistance, in a motion adopted by the global assembly of conservationists. CITES asked Mozambique to explain its efforts to curb the poaching. It instructed the country to tighten its anti-poaching laws and to step up its enforcement against the poachers and smugglers.
The urgent need for closer cooperation between the countries was noted in a report by Mavuso Msimang, the rhinoceros conservation issue manager of South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs. The brief is to solicit the widest possible range of views on how to conserve and manage the endangered species.
In 1996, Msimang, a notable anti-apartheid campaigner, became the first black chief executive of South African National Parks (SANParks), which is a custodian of the country’s national reserves. He became known as ‘Mr Fix-it’ for the roles he played in diverse areas of government after he left SANParks.
Msimang canvassed opinions of everybody connected to rhinos and their conservation. The report he handed over, late last year, to the department’s minister, Edna Molewa, had,  inexplicably, not been made public by the time of the CITES meeting, though parts of it had been disclosed in increments.
He proposes the need for tougher and better coordinated security action between government agencies, ranging from more highly trained and well-equipped game rangers to the armed forces and even SARS (South African Revenue Service). His most contentious recommendation was that legal trade in rhino be allowed on a well-regulated basis, as a way of undercutting the lucrative black market.
He says that there is no silver bullet. The antidote to poaching needs to consist of a wide-ranging set of measures. One of these would have to be engagement with Mozambique over poaching incursions by way of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which the two countries and Zimbabwe established by treaty in 2003. The transfrontier agreements also need to be upgraded to provide for anti-poaching operations.
The crisis has shattered the dream, which was born in the era of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano. It was a pact of supreme trust in which their two countries agreed to open their adjoining national parks, across national boundaries, to allow the animals wider roaming areas and to promote tourism. The arrangement was talked of as the world’s biggest animal kingdom and a jewel for global tourism.
Then the rhino poachers struck. In 2008, they killed what was then considered a worrisome 36 animals in the Kruger. Last year, the tally for the park stood at 425 of the 668 killed throughout the country. Within the first four months of this year, the national toll had exceeded 220.
Kruger’s rangers have received combat training and the police and army have been called in. Spotter planes have come into use, as have helicopters for rapid response. More and more, the fire-fights leave corpses behind. Within a short few years, this peace park, as transfrontier parks are called, has turned into a war zone.
David Mabunda, SANParks CEO, noted that 90% of the poachers come from Mozambique and that they were well-armed, with apparent military training.
“Many go back in body bags. Others get arrested. But they just keep coming,” he says.
South African public sentiment has started turning against the transfrontier scheme, especially as it involved dropping the old high-security fence that, during the border-war years, shielded the Kruger from Mozambique.
“There will be no other way [than putting up the fence] if the relentless incursions of poachers from Mozambique continue,” says Mabunda.
The fears for the scheme were evident from Werner Myburgh—CEO of the Peace Parks Foundation, that Afrikaner industrialist and conservationist Anton Rupert set up in 1997, with Mandela and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands as its patrons.
“It would spell the end of the scheme,” he says.
Big donors, among them the German and French governments, would lose faith and funding, for the Mozambican part of the project in particular, would dry up. Around 6,000 people from Mozambique’s adjacent Limpopo Park, a million hectare tract of land that the Chissano government turned into a reserve for the specific purpose of the transfrontier project, would have to be relocated. Last year, these villagers agreed, after years of excruciating negotiations, to move to host villages outside the park. This would serve anti-poaching operations by making it impossible for the poachers to use the villages as hiding places.
The fear is that reconstruction of the fence would create the impression that the reserve scheme is collapsing and that this would not only jeopardize the translocation, but cause more people to move into the park. This could worsen the poaching problem rather than resolve it.
Myburgh insists that it is, therefore, for the sake of the rhinos that the fence should stay down and that the transfrontier scheme should be pursued with greater vigor. The treaty provides for a joint security committee which, if functioning properly, should serve as a perfect agency for sharing information and running joint anti-poaching operations.

A Deadly War Shatters The Peace Park

Master storyteller; revolutionary author; passionate poet. Chinua Achebe was awarded more than 30 honorary degrees and won numerous international prizes, including the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for his achievements in literature. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, was published in 1958, two years before Nigeria gained independence from Britain. The groundbreaking story of village leader Okonkwo and his subsequent downfall was acclaimed for looking at the destructive impact that Western colonial values had on Igbo society. It has sold more than 8 million copies, been translated into more than 40 languages, adapted for the stage and screen and has become required reading for students around the world.
Things Fall Apart was unique. Achebe used it to change the role of African fiction into a tool for social and political analysis and psychological insight. Three days after its publication The Times Literary Supplement wrote that it: “genuinely succeeds in presenting tribal life from the inside”. Through Achebe’s storytelling, and due to him writing in English, which was rare in African literature at that time, the world was introduced to African life as seen through African eyes.
Achebe’s journey towards becoming the father of modern African writing began at a young age. Although his family converted to Christianity, traditional Igbo religion always fascinated Achebe. His interest in Igbo rituals and customs would become a key part of his fictional works, which are filled with depictions of Igbo life and proverbs. At school, Achebe was an avid reader. His love for English literature led him to William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. But the books he read, including Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, often portrayed Africans as uncivilized and in a dehumanizing light, according to Achebe. At first, he agreed with the depictions; however, by 1948, he realized that he had taken on negative Western representations of his own people. He revealed, during a lecture in 1975, that he believed Conrad was a “thorough going racist”.
While studying English, history and theology at the University of Ibadan, where he graduated in 1953, Achebe was compelled to write.
After reading Mister Johnson, the story of a young Nigerian who falls foul of the British colonial regime, by Irish novelist Joyce Cary, Achebe was angered by what he called: “the most superficial picture of not only the country, but even of the Nigerian character”. His desire to become a rebel against Western representations of Africa was sparked. He used his prowess for incisive commentary to tear down European notions of Africa and examine the tensions between African traditions, colonial modernity and Christianity. This, he powerfully demonstrated in four other novels—No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987)—as well as several poetry anthologies and children’s books, short stories and essays. Achebe can draw the reader in without being overly academic, by using tales about complex individuals as a microcosm for the wider world.
He has used this gift to reflect Africa’s struggles with colonialism to its victorious battles for independence. His criticism has moved from the European colonizers to African leaders and, more recently, to contemporary Western perceptions of Africa.

Farewell The Father Of African Writing

Land reform has been as controversial an issue in post-colonial Africa, as it has been emotive. Not surprising given the sheer scale of poverty and inequality that countries had to deal with once they attained freedom.
The last country to be liberated, South Africa, is finding itself in this unavoidable position- having to take land from mostly white farmers and giving it to large numbers of disadvantaged. In its attempt, South Africa is haunted by the chaos and misfortunes of neighbouring Zimbabwe.
This is not a policy unique to Africa, however. Colombia is working towards an accord on land reform. Some socialist movements in China, Mexico and Cuba, as well as democratic regimes in Chile, Puerto Rico and Venezuela have gone through it.
<div id="attachment_1745" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1745" class="size-medium wp-image-1745" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/John-du-Plessis-CEO-of-TSB-Sugar-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />ohn du Plessis, CEO of TSB Sugar</div>
The reason South Africa’s land reform process has become urgent is the 100 year anniversary of the Natives Land Act, on June 19. The act limited black land ownership to 7%, later increased to 13%. It restricted black people from buying or occupying land, except as employees.
Between 1994 and 2011, 6.8 million hectares (ha) were transferred to claimants. This land is allocated on a 99-year leasehold. The minister of rural development and land reform, Gugile Nkwinti, said that 4,813 farms had been transferred, between 1994 and January 2013 and that his department had spent R12.9 billion ($1.43 billion) on land reform.
Political pressure is growing to speed up South Africa’s tortoise-like land reform in the face of unrest among the poor.
The reasons the land restitution progress has dragged range from corruption to government inefficiency. The bigger question is whether allocation of this land means it will be put to work. The reality is that some claimants have opted to take cash instead of title deeds. South Africa’s department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (DAFF) and the department of rural development and land reform (DRDLR) failed to respond to questions about these issues.
The DRDLR has spent R1.8 billion ($200 million) on the redistribution and recapitalization programs and has set aside R3.2 billion ($355 million) for land reform.
This has been carried out under South Africa’s Restitution Land Rights Act of 1994, which was amended to redefine the ‘restoration of a right in land’ as ‘the return of a right in land or a portion of land dispossessed after June 19, 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices’.
The government is hoping to finalize the thousands of outstanding claims in the next year. The process has taken 18 years. To complicate matters further, the laws are being rewritten, which is likely to cause even more uncertainty.
The willing-buyer, willing-seller model was scrapped and in November President Jacob Zuma created a stir when he proposed that land be bought from white farmers at “just and equitable” prices. He has also suggested a land policy barring foreigners from owning land in South Africa, in favor of long-term leasing. The policy has yet to be finalized and passed, along with the auditing of privately-owned land.
A good case study of the land reform initiative is the sugar industry in Mpumalanga, in northern South Africa. The country is the world’s eleventh largest sugar producer. According to the DAFF’s February 2013 newsletter, Mpumalanga contributed almost a quarter of the national sugar production, during the 2010/2011 season. The South African sugar sector made around R8.2 billion ($910 million), the bulk of which goes to the local market. The growers get around 64% and the millers get more than 35% of the industry’s divisible proceeds.
In 1998, TSB Sugar began work with the government on land reform. TSB gave up around 90% of its land, which the company is currently in joint ventures (JVs)—with communities—over. The land used to be owned by the company, to secure its cane supply.
The company’s CEO, John du Plessis, has been in the sugar industry since he left university. He says the industry has been through tough times due to drought, land reform initiatives and pressures on margins. Du Plessis feels that land reform initiatives caused feelings of uncertainty, leading to lost efficiency in the milling sector and lost production in the agricultural sector. Pressure on margins has been caused by competition from imports, inflation and rising input costs, mainly due to electricity and fuel increases.
Du Plessis says that the biggest problem with the transference of land was high expectations by those who receive it.
“There is a huge expectation that ownership and management can be taken over, sooner rather than later, and we know that’s not a reality,” he says.
Land reform has definitely caught on in the sugar industry. Sixty seven percent of the 49,598ha in the Nkomazi cane area, in Mpumalanga, is owned by beneficiaries and 88% of this percentage is functional.
TSB and its JVs contributed 34% of the cane for the Nkomazi area during the 2012 season. The area has exceeded the national ownership target, while productivity on some of the land has increased slightly, largely due to the fact that some farms were run down. Small growers are a concern. These growers operate as sub-economic units, some producing only 35 tons per hectare against an industry norm of 100 tons per hectare. They are trying to solve the issue by forming co-operatives but this is often hindered by squabbles among owners.
“Sometimes it’s social issues that are undermining the sustainability of land reform and not production,” says Dave Thomson, the manager of land reform at TSB.
The global reality is that there are fewer farmers farming larger areas. The National Development Agency and the South African Sugar Association (SASA) raised R2.8 billion ($310.5 million) last year to improve the competiveness of small-scale sugar cane farmers.
One of the new cane farmers on the block in Mpumalanga is Petros Silinda, who used to teach agricultural science and biology in the province. He held numerous positions including commercial manager, company director and chairman of a trust. His three children are also learning the business.
Silinda believes that new farmers need to work with the old.
“There’s no chop and change in farming,” he says.
Each community in the area formed a trust in 2004, TSB has no say over how the trust manages its finances. The trust in charge of Silinda’s community’s interests has a 22-year deal with TSB, which was signed in 2008. The first 11 years are a 50-50 partnership and the next 11 will be in a 60-40 split between the trust and the company respectively. The trust represents around 1,464 households.
New political party leader, Mamphela Rampele, who was speaking at the opening of the Land Divided Conference 2013, said that there needs to be a balance between the need to redistribute land and retain existing commercial farmers.
At the sugar fields of Mpumalanga, Thompson says that trying to tinker with land prices isn’t going to speed up land reform. He thinks that government needs to look at the process and red tape. Land waiting to be transferred is in the hands of the government but who is there to manage the farms and ensure that there isn’t a dip in production before the beneficiaries receive it.
In Mpumalanga, they tell the story of how the owner of the 576ha Outeniqua farm sent government an offer to purchase the farm but the officials were slow. The farm fell into ruin as the farmer walked away. It was looted and vandalized and by the time the government made its R13 million ($1.4 million) purchase and transferred it to Silinda’s community, it was nothing but fallow land.
When Zimbabwe pushed through the Land Acquisition Act in 1992, the government was entitled to designate mainly-white commercial farms for resettlement.
Little happened until 2000, when the ruling party lost a referendum over a new constitution, that would have absolved the government of paying compensation. Bands of war veterans took the land by force, effectively paralyzing the industry. Professor Sam Moyo, from the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, feels that the downfall of the sector was due to the three droughts that occurred between 2002 and 2008, along with the economic meltdown.
The other issue is that when experienced commercial farmers leave, they take their skills with them. This was the case in Zimbabwe.
SASA is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to its industry. What some fail to see is that having worked the land for generations is very different from being in charge of a business. If the sugar industry can embrace an adapt-or-die mentality, then there may be hope for the rest of the country. The road is long and the squabbles plenty.
Silinda’s parting words speak volumes.
“The moment you start fighting, over nothing, this business is going to perish and when it perishes, it perishes with us.”

Land And Honor

In its five-year history, the community of countries that make up BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)—collectively home to 45% of the world’s population; 20% of output and whose contribution to global economic growth over the last decade has reached 50%—has been more pilloried than praised.
And its critics made it clear that they were not about to let up. Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s newly-elected leader Xi Jinping, host Jacob Zuma, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met again on March 26-27, for the first time on African soil, in Durban, South Africa. They were joined by 15 of Africa’s 54 heads of state.
Bold announcements at the end of the summit did not seem to placate the critics either—including the decision to create a Brics development bank that could rival the World Bank and the IMF; the signing of a Contingent Reserve Agreement (CRA) to pool $100 bilion from the five countries’ reserves; as well as a Multilateral Agreement on Co-operation and Co-financing for Sustainable Development.
Although grudging acknowledgements were made here and there and backhanded compliments were given, the coverage of major American and British publications was around inherent problems within and among the BRICS countries.
“The alliance faces serious questions about whether the member countries have enough in common and enough shared goals to function effectively as a counterweight to the West. For all the talk of solidarity among emerging giants, the group’s concrete achievements have been few… partly because its members are deeply divided on some basic issues and are in many ways rivals, not allies, in the global economy,” wrote the New York Times.
Parallels were drawn between India, Brazil and South Africa’s strong democratic traditions on the one hand, and Russia and China’s autocratic one on the other, although the good democrats were not spared either. The host country came in for a hiding for its small economy and anemic growth rates, while Brazil’s economy had cooled drastically, and India’s hope of reaching double-digit growth had ebbed.
The BRICS economic development ministers, met ahead of their heads of state to tie down decisions for final approval. They must have wondered as to whether there was any co-incidence in the release, the day before the BRICS summit, of a comprehensive report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The detailed report showed how the BRICS countries hardly invest in one another, preferring their neighbors and the developed world’s major economies instead, like those of the European Union, the United States and Japan.
Previous remarks of President Zuma, criticizing the way trade was conducted between China and the African continent were hauled out to show how he had appeared to have a change of heart before the summit meeting. But the same was not done to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the 2011 FORBES AFRICA Person of the Year and head of Nigeria’s central bank, who has been just as critical of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank as he was in the opinion article published in The Financial Times about how China has grown to be “a significant contributor to Africa’s de-industrialization and underdevelopment”.
The morning after the summit, China threw a lavish breakfast for the African heads of state. There are no prizes for guessing why it felt the need to do so.
With the promises of the BRICS heads of state from the previous afternoon’s session gnawing at their minds, African leaders were queuing up, one by one, at the office of their host. The purpose of the meetings were to strike the iron while it is still hot—ostensibly to open discussions that could lead to trade deals and to make sure they were not taken for a ride as guests who just came to hobnob and have a party.
Indeed, the time for African leaders to party and enjoy crumbs falling from their dishonorable colonial friends, while the looting of the continent’s resources continues unabated, is over. And so too should be the growing tendency of having too few people—usually a motley bunch of well-connected, cigar-puffing, whisky-drinking and posh-car-driving elite—benefitting handsomely from the opportunities that are being created by the world’s renewed focus on the continent.
According to Standard Bank, BRICS-Africa trade will increase threefold, from $150 billion in 2010 to $530 billion in 2015. Between 2010 and 2015, BRICS’ share of Africa’s total trade will increase from one-fifth to one-third and BRICS FDI stock in Africa will swell from around $60 billion in 2009 to more than $150 billion by 2015. The IMF also conducted a study, which indicated that the trade and investment from BRICS to low-income countries was deemed as a critical factor to protect them from the shock of the recent global recession.
With all its remaining problems and imperfections, Africa is a much better place today than it was two decades ago. But leaders would do well to remember that the reason coup d’états are frowned upon, elections are held regularly, and governments are a lot more open and transparent, is because Africa’s people are ready to take care of their own destiny, if they feel that their leaders are betraying their trust.
BRICS and many other opportunities that are sure to come our way need not be squandered.
And given our dreadful colonial past, now is the time to be even more vigilant. It’s the only way to deal with the derision emanating from pretentious, ideological dispositions of the western media, its commentators and research institutions—all of whom seem to have conveniently forgotten how they built their countries on the carcasses of Africans, their mineral resources, and how those structural adjustment programs imposed on the ‘dark continent’ by the IMFs and the World Banks of the so-called first world, have continued to play their part in strangulating many an African country, to this day.

How To Strangle Africa

If Zimbabwe’s economic problems hang like a cloud, you could argue that mining is the platinum lining. Platinum investment has poured into Zimbabwe—a country where mining contributes 13% to the GDP and accounts for 60% of export earnings.
Zimbabwe may be rich in resources but it is poor in policy. Most Zimbabweans have seen little of the wealth mined from beneath their feet. The irony is the unpredictable policies aimed at tackling this problem are putting off the foreign investors needed to fuel the long-term, capital-intensive business. Zimbabwe has, for the past decade, recorded among the lowest foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the sub-Saharan Africa region. In 2011, it didn’t even see $400 million in investment, compared to South Africa, Zambia and Angola, which received more than $1 billion apiece.
Platinum claims by government under the Mines and Minerals Act are a prime example. This year, the government acquired nearly 28,000 hectares of platinum claims held by Zimplats—a subsidiary of South Africa’s Impala Platinum—in the Mhondoro-Ngezi district. Earlier, the state had acquired Anglo American Platinum claims, in Shurugwi, to pave way for Todal Mining—a Russian-linked subsidiary of Central African Mining and Exploration Company. Government heavyweights are linked to the acquisition.
“It’s pointless to grab claims that you can’t make good use of,” says a mining engineer based at neighboring Zimasco chrome mine, which was taken over in 2007 by the Chinese.
There is talk that Chinese investors have been eyeing Anglos Unki Mine in the heart of the mineral-rich Great Dyke. This talk, along with the grabbing of the platinum claims, is enough to cause disquiet among investors.
“It will send a negative signal on security of investments in the country and will likely result in a slowdown in FDI into the sector. Mining is generally a long-term investment and investors want security that they will be able to recoup their investments without fear of repossession of their assets. The impact of this uncertainty has already been seen on the local stock market, where mining firms have struggled to raise funding from both local and foreign investors, while trading in these stocks has been quite subdued as the sector sometimes goes for days without recording a single trade,” says Isaac Isaki, head of sales and trading desk at EFE Securities.
With the benefit of foresight, perhaps none of the companies would have invested in the first place. Instead of taking the claims, Isaki argues that the government should have traded the excess claims in partial fulfillment of the indigenization laws, rather than force companies to comply with indigenization laws and then take away the claims.
Zimbabwe has the second largest platinum reserves, which Anglo, the world’s largest platinum producer, tapped into. While it is divesting in its core operations in Zimbabwe, it will keep its gold and platinum production going. Recently, Anglo ceded around 51% of its stake to black Zimbabweans, in a move that created ructions in the financial sector.
Impala Platinum, Zimplats’ owner, and Mimosa Platinum have also conceded to government’s indigenization demands. Once Anglo American had pumped $300 million into its Unki Mine operation, the government cajoled them into an empowerment deal, which, according to legal experts and analysts, had many holes.
Under the empowerment deal: the Tongogara Community Share Ownership Trust; the Unki Employee Trust; and the ‘strategic indigenous investors’ will receive 10% each of the shares. The government will acquire 21% through an indigenous empowerment board through decade-long loans. The Tongogara Community Share Ownership Trust, launched in 2011, was also given $10 million, with $1.3 million spent so far on schools, mortuaries and irrigation schemes.
Harare-based economist John Robertson, who has been studying mining in Zimbabwe for more than four decades, criticizes the empowerment laws.
“I regret that community share ownership schemes will probably make only modest contributions to rural societies, given the fact that their funds will be derived from dividends that will be paid only if and when the companies whose shares are owned by the schemes make profits big enough to justify dividends. If these dividends can be accumulated for long enough to pay for needed social infrastructure, such as roads, schools, dams, water purification plants and hospitals, the benefits will be important, but the word transform might be too extravagant to use to describe the benefits,” he says.
There is a strong perception in the market that the indigenization demands amount to legalized theft.
“Government has passed a law that states all foreign investors have to hand over 51% of their shares. What is the difference between this and a mugger demanding that you let him take half the money out of your wallet? It is wrong and passing a law to legalize it does not make it right,” says Robertson.
Despite these economic setbacks, the country’s future appears to lie in platinum. According to Anglo general manager, Walter Nemasasi, Unki Mine produced 62,692 equivalent platinum-refined ounces in 2012, with projected annual increases.
So far, Anglo has pumped in nearly $350 million into the operations, with the bulk going into a new raw water supply dam and a 17km-long tar road to the mine. At the very least, this investment is turning remote villages into booming towns.
The question is whether these government-brokered empowerment share ownership deals will bring the much needed development and give Zimbabweans a share of the wealth of their land. That is a question likely to be asked ahead of this year’s elections.
<h4>REFERENDUM</h4>
Hope, fear, optimism and change. These are some of the things that precede the Zimbabwean elections expected to be held later this year following the successful signing of a constitutional referendum that saw the three parties in the country make compromises.
With reportedly 3.3 million Zimbabweans having cast their vote in a referendum on a new constitution that seeks to curb presidential powers and strengthen human rights in their country, the spotlight is on Zimbabwe to see if democracy and change will be attained. 
Leaders in the country are seeing the agreement as a stepping stone to new beginnings but political commentators are not convinced it will yield the desired results. Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer and political analyst from Zimbabwe is not celebrating just yet. 
Shumba believes if the Southern African Development Community (SADC) does not step in to assist leading to the elections, history could repeat itself and violence could erupt. 
“We are going to see violence preceding the next elections if precautionary measures are not taken by SADC to prevent violence that is already evident on the ground. The arrest of the human rights activist [Beatrice Mtetwa] is evidence that the next elections won’t be different from those of the past. We have to keep in mind that it is not a constitution that prevents violence or rigging, it is political will,” he says.

A Fair Share Or Legalized Theft?

As Zimbabwe gears up for elections later this year, there is optimism following a successful referendum signing for a new constitution. The referendum, which limits future presidential candidates to two five-year terms in office and allows for their removal if they are found guilty of serious misconduct, violate the constitution or are physically or mentally incapacitated. At least two million people cast their vote in the referendum on March 16.
The agreement is seen as a signal for investors to return to the mineral-rich country, which has been struggling for years. During a conference held over two days in Boksburg, South Africa, a delegation of high ranking Zimbabwean officials gathered to sell their country to investors.
It was led by deputy prime minister and famed rocket scientist Arthur Mutambara and the minister of economic planning and investment promotion, Tapiwa Mashakada. The aim was to lure investors and allay fears of the often violent confiscation of farms.
It is going to be a tough job for them as the country has no currency of its own. The use of the Zimbabwean dollar as an official currency was abandoned in 2009 as the Reserve Bank legalized the use of foreign currencies for transactions.
“Zimbabwe is open for business. The country offers serious investment opportunities in mining, manufacturing, tourism, construction, agriculture and consumer-facing industries such as ICT. In addition, attractive fiscal incentives are available to registered and licensed investors,” says Mashakada.
The Zimbabwean constitution has been a thorn in the side hampering growth and foreign investment in the past. Mutambara says that one of the problems they have had over the past 10 years has been the issue of the constitution. He says that most agreed that the problems were coming from a flawed and dysfunctional constitution.
“For the past 10 or so years there has been a movement to develop a new constitution. What we have done with this referendum is that now we have a new constitution adopted by the people of Zimbabwe. It might not be the best or the most desired constitution; it was a compromised document. Three major parties had to compromise but it is better than the old constitution. The positive thing is to say that now Zimbabwe has a new constitution, which the majority of people endorsed, that’s progress… We need to make sure the taxation is supportive of investors. The referendum and constitution are a starting point in the journey of the creation of an attractive business climate,” says Mutambara.
When questioned about the past, which saw farmers and investors driven away, Mutambara is confident that it won’t happen again. He says that the indigenization law, which says foreign companies must sell 51% of their stake to a Zimbabwean national, is not about expropriation or nationalization.
“We want to empower our people, we want our people to be involved in their economy but when we say we want 51%, the Zimbabwean player must pay fair value for those shares. That way we have a partnership that brings stability for the investor and for the Zimbabwean economy,” says Mutambara.
Gabriel Shumba, a human rights lawyer and political commentator from Zimbabwe, is skeptical.
“It is still premature to be talking about investors returning to the country as much as talking about exiled Zimbabweans returning home. Zimbabwe still has to adhere to electoral regulations and we need to see the results of the elections not being contested before investors can come,” he says.
In the fight for investors, the Zimbabwean people have support from the South African government. South Africa’s deputy minister of trade and industry, Elizabeth Thabethe, told delegates at the conference that Zimbabwe could feed the entire African continent.
“We have agreed with our partners, including Zimbabwe, that we must do more collaborative work in developing institutions, including access to finance. In 2010, the country only managed to attract about $105 million out of over $2 billion proposals submitted. They are however showing interest in moving forward,” she says.
Gauteng Department of Economic Development MEC Nkosiphendule Kolisile agreed that South Africa should encourage investors.
“They must think employment, job creation. If your neighbors are having instability in their economy, you don’t go around rejoicing because that will have a direct impact on your economy,” he says.
The question is whether investors will heed the call. It is clear that if Zimbabwe sneezes, Africa catches a cold.

REFERENDUM AND INVESTMENTS

Nando’s founder Robert Brozin, 53, looks, speaks, and swears, more like a surfer than the head of a food industry giant.
Dressed in a pair of jeans, a button-down shirt, a ‘united against malaria’ bracelet and loafers, he could easily be dismissed as an old man suffering from a midlife crisis. It’s all part of his plan to disarm anyone who has preconceived ideas about how a company chairman should look and act.
The reality is that Brozin is a very smart businessman. At the FNB Franchising Leadership Summit held in Sandton, Johannesburg last year, he told the gathered crowd:
“Our basic vision, when we started twenty five years ago, was to have fun. If you are not going to have fun, do not do it. This is not a dress rehearsal; this is life, boet [brother in Afrikaans]. We are trying to keep that balance while at the same time changing how the world thinks about chicken,” he says.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1729" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Pic3-217x300.jpg" alt="" width="217" height="300" />
Nando’s has certainly changed the way the world thinks about chicken, not only through the spicy meals they dish up but through their infamous, sometimes political, advertising campaigns.
But where did it all start?
Brozin was born in the small town of Middelburg, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, but finished high school at Johannesburg’s King David High School.
He did a BComm degree at the University of the Witwaters-rand, after which he joined accounting giant, Price Waterhouse before they became PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He did two years of articles before joining his father’s business Teltron as a marketing manager.
While working at Teltron, he met his future business partner Fernando Duarte, who introduced him to a shop in the small suburb of Rosettenville called Chickenland that sold Portuguese chicken. They later bought the shop.
FORBES AFRICA had an opportunity to speak to him after the summit.
“Fernando and I used to go eat in Rosettenville and I liked the chicken. I wanted to be an investor. I thought I would put money in and Fernando would be there and I would just come to check how things were. But this was not the case. I soon found out I had to be full-time,” says Brozin.
Brozin wanted to take the brand global and enlisted the services of various advertising agencies to help him market the brand.
They finally found the right match in HuntLascaris, which was also just starting out. The two companies created some of the most talked about advertisements in South African television.
“We met Reg and John, who became our first proper agency. We were so aligned, whereas before we were running around like chickens without heads. I remember Hunt presenting adverts to us that I thought were terrible that went on to win awards, which I will now take credit for,” says Brozin.
One of the HuntLascaris founders, Reg Lascaris, remembers those early days for both companies that have since grown to become world beaters.
“I met Robbie in the very early ‘90s, when he was looking for an advertising agency to handle his business. He came to see us and we then presented some ideas back to him, which he liked. Our biggest achievement was in creating breakthrough and controversial advertising that helped create the personality of the brand,” he says.
Today, Nando’s can be found in more than 25 countries around the world, across five continents. But it hasn’t been plain sailing for Brozin, and his partner, to get it to this level.
“When we started out everyone knew about the other brands like Chicken Licken and KFC […] but we were passionate about chicken. The front line people are the real heroes at Nando’s. You can’t have a great organization without having good people at that level,” he says.
He also gives credit to his father, Max, and his partner for keeping him going when times were tough.
“There were times when I was ready to throw in the towel. My personal success has been surrounding myself with people who pull you up when you are down. My dad has been a huge influence in my life. He is a Jewish accountant. Everything is about cost. Fernando has been fantastic for me. We disagree many times but he has gotten me out of [trouble] many times. It’s not how you get into [trouble] but how you get out of [trouble],” he says.
Brozin has stepped down as CEO of Nando’s and has appointed David Niven, previously head of the American and European Nando’s divisions, in his place. Brozin says it was time to get some “adult supervision” but admits that he is busier than he has ever been.
“It needed the right time and right guy to come in and thicken the Nando’s brand globally. I gave the new CEO a watch. I said, ‘You might have the watch but Africa has the time. As you get bigger you get tighter and you squeeze people. That is not the way to do it.’”
It is clear that the married father of three is not only driven by profits; he is passionate about his efforts to curb the spread of malaria in Africa.
Nando’s sells ‘united against malaria’ bracelets in all of its restaurants to raise awareness. The proceeds go to buying mosquito nets for people in affected regions.
However, it is in business where Brozin is an expert. He offers some advice to those wishing to follow in his footsteps.
“When Reg and John started they had no cash, no office… they started at the back of a car. Who starts one of the best agencies in the world in the back of a car? You have got to start with nothing. If you start with too much and you have the biggest offices in the world you are not going to achieve much. Entrepreneurs come to me and ask for cash. Cash is the last thing. Money has four legs, man has two legs. Money will always catch up to man.”
Sound advice, indeed, from a Jewish boy from the northern suburbs, who started selling Portugese chicken in the south; and now sells Nando’s to the world.
<h4>CONTROVERSIAL</h4>
<h4>NANDO’S ADVERTS</h4>
<h4>(MOSTLY CREATED BY BLACK RIVER F.C. ADVERTISING AGENCY)</h4>
<h4>LAST DICTATOR ADVERT</h4>
The advert shows a sad Robert Mugabe dining alone at Christmas in a mansion, while he reminisces about “the good old days” with former controversial leaders. Times when he played water tag with Muammar Gaddafi; made angels in the sand with Saddam Hussein; pushed P. W. Botha on a children’s swing and drove a tank with Idi Amin, while Those Were the Days is being played.
<h4>XENOPHOBIA ADVERT</h4>
In this 60 seconds advert Nando’s aims to ridicule Xenophobia. A xenophobe says that he wishes that all foreigners would disappear from South Africa. Frame by frame South Africans from ethnic and tribal groups start disappearing until only a Khoisan remains on screen. He says, “I am not going anywhere, you found us here”.
<h4>NANDO’S CHICKEN BREAST ADVERT</h4>
A customer orders a Nando’s burger and chips, which are delivered while she is on the phone. Her breasts are so big they cover the plate. At the end of her telephone conversation she asks the waiter where her chips are. They waiter says, “Right in front of you”. She only sees the chips when the waiter pulls the plate to the center of the table.

Nando’s: Not A Headless Chicken

It’s a few months before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Experts predict 300,000 tourists will come to South Africa with bulging pockets. Businessmen across the country are rubbing their hands. Musa Xaba, founder of clothing store Democratic Republic, was caught up in football fever. When someone approached him with the idea to open a bigger store at the V&amp;A Waterfront in Cape Town he thought it was a good idea. You know what thought did…
Xaba was on a steady course with his five-year plan. The Democratic Republic store at the Waterfront was doing well, Xaba was opening another store at Cape Quarter Mall and investors were eager to expand overseas. A second bigger store at the Waterfront was not in his plan but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up.
<div id="attachment_1725" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1725" class="size-medium wp-image-1725" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/569-85-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Entrepreneur/clothing retailer Musa Xaba; Sandton City, Johannesburg; 2 April 2013 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff.</div>
“All the marketing gurus of the world were telling us that South Africa would be a different place… the World Cup was going to open doors to different people who had never been to Africa,” he says.
His rationale was that the existing store was very small. The thought of customers complaining because of a cramped shop was too much to bear.
But the World Cup came and went. The hundreds of thousands of supporters came, saw and walked away—taking their money with them.
“It became a disaster beyond disaster. The people who came were young and very into soccer. They hadn’t come to shop; they had come for the experience of the soccer World Cup,” says Xaba.
To make matters worse Democratic Republic’s regular customers left Cape Town to avoid the soccer crowds.
“This is the interesting thing—70 percent of all the five-star hotels in Cape Town were pre-booked but the people never came. The stadiums were chockablock full, hotels were empty. Your Pick ‘n Pays and backpackers were full. The high-end consumers that they promised didn’t come through,” he says.
Xaba had no choice but to close the two stores at the Waterfront, losing R2 million ($261,200) in the process. And as if things couldn’t get worse, his foreign investors pulled out. Xaba was devastated. It was hard to believe that one bad decision would destroy years of hard work.
“We had to let go. I told my staff that we were going to focus and stick to the plan. We had a road map. We said after five years in Cape Town we should be in the right season to move to Johannesburg.”
With thousands of rands worth of clothing and one store remaining at Cape Quarter, Xaba began to recover slowly.
It has been almost three years since the soccer World Cup and Xaba has made the move to Johannesburg. The business has stabilized and the lesson has been learnt.
“In retail, it’s about time. Even to come to Jo’burg we had to wait out five years in Cape Town.”
<div id="attachment_1726" style="width: 219px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1726" class="size-medium wp-image-1726" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/77958587-singer-celine-dion-sighting-shopping-on-gettyimages-209x300.jpg" alt="" width="209" height="300" />NEW YORK &#8211; NOVEMBER 16: Singer Celine Dion sighting shopping on Madison Avenue at Chanel November 16, 2007 in New York City. (Photo by Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic)</div>
Xaba has even thought of reopening a store at the Waterfront, a place where he enjoyed luck as well as disaster.
In 2008, Céline Dion was on tour in South Africa. On the day she visited the Waterfront she only walked into two stores: Louis Vuitton, where she bought a bag; and Democratic Republic, where she left with 17 items of clothing.
“The clothes were just so many and she needed them to be sent to the hotel. I don’t think that record has been broken,” says Xaba.
Looking back, Xaba admits that the road to becoming an entrepreneur has been filled with dedication and determination to learn the industry inside out. After graduating from Natal Technikon—now Durban University of Technology, where he studied design—he worked at South Africa’s biggest listed apparel retailer Truworths, as a senior buyer.
In 2000, he started his own manufacturing company, Vintage Culture, which produced clothing for companies such as Topics, Hilton Weiner and Truworths.
“When I was working as a buyer, I traveled overseas to source products in America, the United Kingdom, Amsterdam, Paris and Milan. But when I started working for myself I had to start from the bottom. That meant I was staying at backpackers. I had to organize cheaper [flight] tickets—it meant traveling through Dubai to get to London,” he says.
After five years in manufacturing, Xaba took the plunge and opened Democratic Republic.
“I was looking for a name… that wherever you are [in the world] you could look up at the name you’ll know it is an African brand. We wanted to build a company that would produce a product for a youthful South African woman… She is ageless, she can move with the trends, she knows what she wants,” he says.
Democratic Republic made its debut at YDE (Young Designers Emporium), which sells clothing by South African designers, in 2005.
“It was the easiest way. I didn’t borrow money from the bank. I had to sell everything that was sellable in terms of my assets in order to raise the finances.”
But after two months the agreement fell through. Xaba wanted the brand to stand out but YDE wanted the clothing to blend in with everything else. So he decided that the only way forward was to stand alone and he opened his first store at the Waterfront.
Looking back he admits that there were hard lessons learnt but that the most important was knowing that there are certain things in life you cannot control, and the outcome of the World Cup was one of them.
“Don’t put the cart before the horse—that’s my 2010 lesson.”
Now, as Xaba sits sipping on a glass of chardonnay, there are few signs of stress. He spends his time flying between Johannesburg and Cape Town to keep an eye on the stores. As the 2014 FIFA World Cup approaches, Xaba is playing it as cool as his chardonnay. He has a five-year plan and he’s sticking to it this time. In footballing terms, he conceded two own goals after spending money on a star defender that turned out not to be so. At the very least, his business won in penalties at the end of extra time.

The Man Who  Lost 2-0 At Home

Naushad Merali has spent a lifetime making deals at the speed of light; deals that turned him into one of the richest men in East Africa. How did he do it?
The tea and telecom tycoon was a new entry, at number 39, on the 2012 FORBES AFRICA ‘Africa’s 40 Richest People’ list, with a personal fortune of $410 million.
Not bad for a man who started life as a humble finance clerk in a Nairobi garage. Merali was a young man when he joined the finance department of Ryce Motors—a company he would one day own. All he had on his mind, in those days, was making ends meet for his family. Fate lent a hand one day, when Merali was 24 and his boss took him to one side.
“The owner, Frank Ryce was getting old and wanted to go back to Germany. So I thought to myself, ‘Why should I let this company go after working here for so long?’ I went for it,” says Merali.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1721" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Merali-3864-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
He took a loan of Ksh200,000 (around $2,350 at the current exchange rate) from Bank of America, now known as Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), in 1975 to buy Ryce Motors. The amount from the bank was a third of what he needed, but Ryce agreed to take the money as a down payment.
Merali’s life transformed overnight as he became managing director. He was no longer worrying about putting food on the table; he was now worrying about: running a company; paying employees on time; repaying his first loan and honoring his commitment to Ryce.
“The company had a lot of potential and never once did I doubt the decision I had made,” he says.
Ryce Motors was housed in a warehouse that doubled as a showroom, with a petrol station next door. Merali wasted no time; he found a bigger warehouse in which the business could expand.
As money came in, so did investment opportunities. Six years into managing Ryce Motors, an opportunity came to invest into construction company H. Young &amp; Co. and this became Merali’s first buyout. His revenue was growing, so was his confidence and soon he found himself rubbing shoulders with the Kenyan elite.
Merali remembers the day, in 1985, when he walked into CBA and walked out its proud owner.
“You see, I signed a deal of $600,000 but believe me, I only had $6 in my pocket and had 90 days to complete it,” he says with a smile.
His family and friends thought he was mad.
“A family friend even asked my wife to have my mental status checked,” he says.
“When I came back and bought the bank, suddenly people were interested to participate and so I formed a consortium,” he adds.
It was a turning point: the consortium included the family of the first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta. The CBA acquisition was, at that time, one of Kenya’s biggest buyouts by a Kenyan. This was the first acquisition in his buying spree that included: First National Bank of Chicago; Firestone East Africa; Eveready East Africa and Sasini.
“Our specialty is buyouts. The company has grown from zero to the current state, where we employ over 24,000 people in Kenya alone. Turnover for the group is over a billion dollars,” says the 61-year-old.
To order these acquisitions, Merali formed a holding company for his business empire and named it after his son, Sameer. Today, the Sameer Group runs five agriculture companies, including Sasini; Savanna Coffee Lounge; Sameer Industrial Park; a corporate showroom along Mombasa Road; Eveready Head Office and Ryce Engineering.
In the finance sector, Sameer Group owns shares in Equatorial Commercial Bank, alongside Kenya Data Networks in the information technology sector. Sameer Industrial Park is a premier export processing zone, which was established in 1991. Sameer has ownership in Kenya’s second largest mobile phone service provider, Airtel, and owns tire maker Yana Tyres and Yansam East Africa Motors. Merali also has properties in London, Dubai and across Africa.
The company has spread beyond Kenya. It owns 33% of Farmsecure, a South African agricultural company, and has dairy operations in Uganda. The latter came about when Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, approached Merali for a solution to the struggling dairy industry in his country. Merali, together with the RJ Corporation of India, revived the industry from a daily production of 25,000 liters to 450,000, through 39 processing plants. The Dairy Corporation also ventured into the production of powdered milk, resulting in Uganda becoming a milk exporter, rather than importer.
Today, Sameer Agriculture and Livestock in Uganda exports to Yemen, Egypt, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and parts of Rwanda. The Ugandan operation inspired Merali to launch a milk processing company in Kenya called Daima.
Merali’s company owns majority shares in Sasini, one of the biggest tea and coffee producing and processing companies in Kenya, which has 12,000 acres of tea and coffee plantations. At the plantations, in Kiambu, 12km outside of Nairobi, one acre of land is valued at an average of Ksh30 million ($351,981), which makes the land worth Ksh260 billion or close to $4.3 billion. That is just a fraction of his assets, which include stocks and properties in prime locations across Nairobi.
“It’s always difficult to put a figure to it and this is not all investment. We borrow money. That is why I wonder how to put a value to my worth,” he says.
Merali attributes a huge part of his success to instinct. He bought Sasini from a complete stranger on a plane headed to London.
“There was this fellow next to me and we started talking about what he was doing in Kenya. He said that he had come from a board meeting for Sasini, but I did not know what Sasini was,” says Merali.
It turned out the man on the plane was the chairman of Mercanta, a company listed in the United Kingdom (UK).
At the end of the conversation, Merali was not only taken by the idea of a tea and coffee plantation, but wanted to put his money into it too.
“Do you want to sell?” Merali asked him.
When he was questioned about whether he had a background in tea and coffee, he responded to the challenge by bragging that he knew Africa and asked for a price.
“He said GBP 10 million and we shook hands. That was on May 1, 1989 and on June 1, he had his check and I had his company!” Merali says with pride.
In the end, Merali bought 43% of the company and, 24 years later, is very happy with that decision as the company has grown tremendously.
This is one of Africa’s great migrant entrepreneur stories. Merali’s great-grandfather came from India and settled in Lamu, along Kenya’s coast, in 1883. The family lived there until Merali’s father moved to Mombasa, where Merali was born in February 1951. In those days, it was easy to move around East Africa. The family moved from Kenya to Moshi, Tanzania, where Merali attended primary school with his three brothers and three sisters.
In 1967, when the then Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere, announced the Arusha Declaration—laying down socialist principles for his country—Merali was one of the thousands who joined the 400-mile walk from Moshi to Dar es Salaam to mark the occasion. It took 11 days.
“The reason I did it was not because I believed in Nyerere’s policy but because there was no other Asian doing it,” he says.
Shortly after the walk, he moved to Nairobi, where he completed high school in 1969. He then jetted off to Britain a year later, where he studied accounts and finance at a college on Oxford Street in London. In 1973, he came home to marry Zarina, a girl chosen by his mother.
Merali’s journey came with its fair share of tough lessons.
In 1999, investors from French company Vivendi were looking for a Kenyan partner to invest in what would be Kenya’s second mobile phone service provider. Forty percent was up for grabs. Though Merali had not dealt with GSM and mobile phone technology, he took the opportunity to invest money in a company called Kencell.
It took a turn for the worse due to internal problems at Vivendi and the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York, which, forced the company to reconsider its strategy in Africa. Simply put, they wanted out.
“Every time an issue came up, either in New York or anywhere else, they would turn the heat on their African operations and I could see that they were doing their best to get rid of their African interests,” says Merali.
Vivendi was obligated to make Merali an offer first, owing to his pre-emptive rights as owner of the remaining 40% in the cellular service provider, Kencell. They gave him 15 days to raise $250 million to exercise his right. Almost certain that Merali would not pull it off, Vivendi went ahead with negotiations with South Africa’s MTN.
With the end of the 15 days nigh, Merali contacted an old friend Mohammed Ibrahim—founder of cellular services provider Celtel—about the 60% stake offer in Kencell. Celtel had tried, unsuccessfully, to enter the Kenyan market for four years and agreed to take up the 60% majority stake in Kencell at $250 million. In the meantime, Vivendi agreed to sell their stake at $230 million. The upshot was that Merali made $20 million profit in 24 hours.
“Always remember that the best time to buy is when foreign companies want to go, and the best time to sell is when they want to come. I celebrated later that evening because it was a great thing,” he says.
He later offloaded his stake in the cellular company, noting that he would not have made as much money had he waited longer.
“When I sold my 15 percent, I managed to create good wealth. In business, timing is key.”
When Merali sold 15%— worth an estimated Ksh6 billion—of his 20% stake to Kuwait-based Zain Group. He made more than $130 million on the sale, which he says never would have happened had he held on to the stake longer. Merali retained 5% ownership in Kenya’s second largest cellular service provider, after selling most of his stake to India’s Bharti, which took over from Zain Group. The company has changed hands four times, since it was established in Kenya, creating speculation about its profitability, but Merali maintains that he has never lost a cent through the company.
Immediately after the Kencell deal, Merali brought fiber optics into the country, through Kenya Data Networks (KDN). The company offers data services to corporates, internet service providers and telecommunication companies.
“Once I saw the use of information technology in Europe, I knew that it had to catch up in Africa, and data today is growing very fast. That’s how we have been shifting our investments,” he says.
Merali’s interest in information and communications technology includes a share in Altech Swift Global that offers retail services such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP). He sold his majority stakes in both KDN and Altech to Liquid Telecom, from the UK. From his telecommunication deals alone, Merali has made more than $500 million.
One might wonder if Merali has ever got his fingers burnt. He has and green fingers at that. Once, he invested in a flower farm, but lost more than Ksh50 million ($586,635) when he sold. The farm had started performing badly and Merali says that he would have lost much more had he chosen to hold on. He also partnered with a German investor to open a hotel, but when the German partner died, things went downhill and he had to abandon the business.
“The important thing is that you learn from it, it’s always a learning process,” says Merali.
In his dealings, the stability of a company’s management contributes hugely to his decision to take it up or not. He does not buy companies to run them, but to make money. And when it’s time to sell, he sells.
“Keep emotions out of business, save that only for your wife!’’ says Merali.
He adds that business partnership must be based on mutual interests.
“It’s not like in a marriage where you can part ways and give 50 percent and say ‘go’.”
Merali is not only a profit taker; he joins the likes of Manu Chandaria in philanthropic activities around the country. The Zarina and Naushad Merali Foundation gives between Ksh150 million ($1.75 million) to Ksh250 million ($2.92 million) every year to communities. One of the biggest donations made by the foundation, included Ksh100 million ($1.17 million) to the Kenyatta National Hospital to build a day care center.
Merali donated 30 acres of prime beach property, in the affluent coastal town of Malindi, to the Kenyan government to be used as a public beach. He reserved a piece of land in Nairobi to establish a sports club called Jaffery’s.
Merali plans to invest in Africa’s energy infrastructure. He has put Sameer at the helm of the company, saying that his son has a name to protect, which will ensure that he stays focused.
“The company has grown on reputation. Your word is your bond, it’s not even the agreements,” he says to his son, who comes in for an introduction.
Thirty-seven-year-old Sameer has a Master’s Degree in banking and finance, but little can prepare him for his father’s big shoes. He is already running some of the companies both as an executive and non-executive director.
“As you know right now, Africa and more so in East Africa is where all the opportunity is. In the last 10 years, we knew it and now everybody knows it. There is a lot of activity, just looking at how the country has changed in the last 10 years and what is there for the future. It’s exciting,” he says.
Merali is one of the millionaires to watch in 2013. His ability to buy and sell at the speed of light has earned him millions of dollars. You can be sure, in the time it has taken to read this article, the old fox has struck another deal.

Tag: May 2013

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