It’s 10AM and the scorching summer sun burns over the lush suburb of Rosebank in Johannesburg. On this morning, under the shade of a tree, in the quiet backyard of a law firm office, is Africa’s top boxing promoter Rodney Berman, the guiding spirit of Golden Gloves Promotions. In a light blue short-sleeve shirt and cut-off jeans, Berman meets an equally casual boxing trainer Colin Nathan. Almost two years ago, a suited Berman met Prince Albert II at the Palace of Monaco, a meeting a world away from this tree in Rosebank, but at the heart of his business fortunes. On that day, an African entrepreneur met a prince with an idea of making money out of putting Monte Carlo back on the boxing map.
“It will take time, but we will build Monaco as one of the boxing Meccas in Europe,” says Berman.
The two men, under the tree in Rosebank, finalized the undercard fight for the next Monte Carlo bout between Hekkie Budler, the South African WBA and IBO minimum weight champion, and Jesus Silvestre, a Mexican with a famous first name and a strong jab. Budler defended his titles against Xiong Zhao Zhong in Monte Carlo in October.
The drawcard for February 21 in Monte Carlo, with a $3-million purse, is undefeated Russian Gennady Golovkin against Martin Murray, an English middleweight.
“It will break all the previous records, notwithstanding the Marvin Hagler and Norberto Rufino Cabrera fight in 1979. Television audiences all around the world will have it. It’s the fruition of what we have been working towards for more than 30 years, in a nutshell. I was very fortunate that I was into Golovkin, who in my opinion is the most exciting fighter in the world today, and even Mayweather respectfully ducks him. I understand Mayweather wishes to beat the Rocky Marciano 49/0 record. He is entitled to it, he has earned his greatness,” says Berman.
It’s a fight that sprang from an African connection with Monte Carlo – Princess Charlene, the wife of Prince Albert II. The former Olympic swimmer was born in Zimbabwe and bred in Benoni, a suburb east of Johannesburg. Her father, Michael Kenneth Wittstock, a former salesman in Johannesburg, had a chance conversation about boxing in Monte Carlo with the South African Emperor’s Palace Casino chief executive. He recommended Golden Gloves to Wittstock and his royal in-laws.
“The reality is I am very proud of the fact that I am from South Africa, the backburner of boxing in the world. Without the financial muscle and without the talent my opposition has, we are still regarded as one of the leading promotion companies in the world, which is a big endorsement. One thing Monaco has done for me was to level the playing field to put on Murray and Golovkin, where on the South African basis, you talking R4 million ($350,000) just for one fighter. HBO television will pay $10 million for the fight; I can’t reasonably expect to get that amount of money. The casino will pay $5 million and the crowd will pay $2,000 for a ringside seat, so despite all that, for over 30 years we have managed to build this reputation,” says Berman.
Berman has come a long way since his first venture into the fight game. That was with Charlie Weir, known as the Silver Assassin because of a streak of white hair, and Bushy Bester. It all began amid blood and fury at Wembley Ice Rink in Johannesburg on August 29, 1977. Weir, who died of cancer at the age of 35, knocked out Bester in the first of six rounds to become Golden Gloves’ first middleweight champion. The company produced more than 50 world champions, most South Africans. Among them: Vuyani Bungu; Welcome Ncita; Brian Mitchell and Budler. It took Golden Gloves 12 years to breed a world champion. Ncita won the world super bantamweight title in Israel against Fabrice Benichou in 1990.
Berman’s 37-year career in boxing has rarely been dull. He staged one of the greatest upsets in the history of heavyweight boxing at Brakpan, a grimy mining town east of Johannesburg, in 2001. The swaggering British millionaire heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis lost to underdog Hasim Rahman in the fifth round. The fight, which Lewis dedicated to Muhammad Ali, was described as the greatest upset since Gene Tunney defeated Jack Dempsey in 1926.
Speaking of Ali, another Berman adventure was the great man’s daughter’s fight in 2006. The historic first female professional bout in the continent between Laila Ali and Gwendolyn O’Neil, of Guyana, was cancelled at the last minute when a Cape Town promoter couldn’t find the money. Ali’s fee alone was $522,000. She won Berman’s rematch at Emperor’s Palace, in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, on February 3, 2007. Apparently, it was Ali’s wish that his daughter fight in Africa, as he fought in Kinshasa in 1974, the famous Rumble in the Jungle with George Foremen.
Many people saw the historic fight of Laila as a breakthrough for female boxing in Africa. Berman disagrees.
“In my opinion women should not be boxing. To me it’s not a sport for women,” Berman says.
The 72-year-old father of two believes casinos are the future.
“Monte Carlo Casino is the most magnificent casino I’ve ever seen. Boxing revolves around casinos. The Mayweathers, the Pacquiaos, the Klitschkos the Mitchells and even the Baby Jakes, they could have never achieved what they had achieved without pay television and casinos. The national televisions around the world cannot afford to pay what these boxers command and what they are entitled to,” he says.
Peter Leopeng, a veteran boxing analyst in South Africa, agrees.
“In America, Madison Square Garden was the Mecca of boxing before MGM Grand in Las Vegas took over. Mayweather fought most of his fights in MGM; Las Vegas is known worldwide as the capital of gambling. Casinos pay promoters to host their fights; it’s not about boxing but the event. These events attract punters and gamblers to the casinos and that means more money to them,” says Leopeng.
Golden Gloves has more than 300 international fights under its belt, but Berman himself has never thrown a punch. He is a football fanatic and played at the University of Witwatersrand in the 1960s. Berman tells FORBES AFRICA he was a good goalkeeper and if were not for his lack of height he would have turned professional. During the political turbulence in the country in 1993, Berman staged a friendly between Orlando Pirates and Italian side AC Milan, at Ellis Park, in Johannesburg. Nelson Mandela, who was to become president the following year, attended the 3-2 win by the Italians along with 60,000 fans.
Berman was close to Mandela and has fond memories. During Laila Ali’s fight, Berman welcomed Mandela, ready to usher him to his ringside seat.
“As he was getting out of his car he shouted: ‘Rodney, Rodney, you may not remember me, its Mandela here, Nelson Mandela.’ That’s the kind of man he was. He just made everybody feel comfortable.”
Though the future appears bright for Golden Gloves, Berman says he’s concerned about the dimming talent of boxers and administration in his country. There’s no point of taking boxers to fight for international titles when they are not up to it, he laments.
“It’s not about the greatness of the promoter but it’s the greatness of the boxer. You can be the best promoter but if the level of boxers is lowering, you can’t do anything. Africa is not good at producing heavyweights. Nigeria is trying but it’s not good enough. It is a sad indictment,” says Berman.
Even so Berman – the ring entrepreneur – is ready to go another round. Monte Carlo or bust!

The African,  The Prince And  The $10-Million Fight

Unlike the more glorified test of man and machine (such as Formula One), rally racing has for decades been relegated to an inferior position in the hierarchy of tests of endurance. Yet this demanding sport actually predates F1; finding its roots in 1894 when horseless cart races dominated the city of Paris. Monte Carlo was the scene for the first official rally in 1911 and soon, city-to-city road races sprang up across France and Europe.
These races gave birth to those elements we still enjoy in modern rallying, such as time trials and the use of road books and route notes. Drivers had to weave between pedestrians and animals while covering distances as great as 1,178km—sometimes without any rest periods in between. Safety naturally became an issue, as the clunky vehicles got increasingly faster along those inhospitable tracks. The sport was banned in France for a brief period but soon, purpose-built tracks were developed and the sport came into its own.
A name we now associate with two-wheeled competitions, the Tour de France, began originally for rally drivers and kicked off in 1899. The most famous of all rallying competitions began decades later in 1977. Thierry Sabine was travelling through the Libyan desert on his motorbike when he got lost. Struck by the austerity and beauty of the landscape, he vowed to share his discovery with as many people as possible when he finally made it back to France.
Sabine mapped out a 10,000km route from Europe into Algiers, across Agadez and finishing in Dakar. To mark the birth of the Paris-Dakar rally, he coined the following motto: “A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind.”  But this competition became a nightmare for 58 competitors who, since the inception of the challenge, lost their lives in pursuit of glory. One of South Africa’s most renowned Paris-Dakar competitors, Alfie Cox (who’d made the transition from bikes to cars), narrowly escaped death in January this year when his Volvo XC60 suffered power-steering failure. The car burst into flames and both Cox and his co-driver, Jürgen Schröder, had to be airlifted from the scene. Unforgiving terrain and mechanical difficulties are not the only threats to competitor safety. The rally had to be cancelled in 2008 due to security issues in Mauritania and the competition shifted to South America in 2009. It has stayed there ever since.
Thanks to its challenging conditions, Africa has hosted some other, perhaps lesser-known events, such as the FIA African Rally Championships (which takes place in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Madagascar), the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic, and the colloquially-termed Put Foot Rally.
Legend has it that the East African Safari Classic grew out of a conversation motorsport enthusiast Neil Vincent had with his cousin Eric Cecil. Vincent is attributed with saying: “I can imagine nothing more boring than driving round and round the same piece of track. But if you will organize an event where we can get into our cars, slam the door, go halfway across Africa and back, and the first car home is a winner, I’ll be in it.” In 1953, the competition took off under the guise of a tribute to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Put Foot Rally, unlike all the rest, emphasizes the social element rather than competition. It is aimed at bringing attention to tourism in South Africa and an appreciation for the wildlife and natural beauty that make up this fair land. But ultimately, rallying is about rivalry and economics—it’s a proving ground where manufacturers test their latest technology (which we as consumers benefit from). These competitions also generate financial rewards for the local areas hosting them.
Take the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race for example, which takes place on June 22-24 every year. Since 1975, this has been considered the ‘Comrades Marathon’ of all off-road events. At the launch of this year’s race, Onkokame Kitso Mokaila, Botswana’s minister for environment, wildlife and tourism, mentioned that the rally contributed “millions of pula” to their country’s economy with the bulk of the money being spent on food, transport, accommodation, entertainment and petrol. Businesses in the vicinity of the race route also mentioned increased sales during the annual event.
The technology required to build a car that’s capable of taking on extreme terrain is simply astonishing and begins with a frame that’s not only lightweight but capable of withstanding severe punishment. The frame doubles up as a roll cage and, according to FIA regulations, needs to be able to withstand up to 16.9 tons for a defined area. Driver and passenger safety of road-going cars has enjoyed many benefits, all as a direct result of the conditions experienced in rally (and other forms of) racing.
Keeping these cars in contact with the roads—where there is one—is the job of the suspension, yet this needs to allow enough ground clearance (spring travel is limited to 250mm) while still maintaining stability. Production cars make use of these developments, but naturally the emphasis here isn’t only on performance but also on ensuring comfort levels as well.
Four-wheel drive is crucial in rallying, yet the Paris-Dakar regulations stipulate that any form of electronic control is prohibited. As a result, manufacturers often opt for viscous locking for the car’s three differentials. One might think that, as these cars can’t travel as fast as their road-going counterparts, aerodynamics wouldn’t be a major factor—it actually is. A rally vehicle’s drag coefficient enjoys the highest priority in the design phase (which is obviously of great importance for road-going cars; ensuring high levels of fuel efficiency), all the while taking into account the need for short overhangs that allow easy entry angles when climbing over hills or obstructions.
Creating downforce, unlike in Formula One, is not a necessity as sand has high rolling resistance. In terms of bodywork, the carbon fiber shell on the 2012 Volkswagen Race Touareg for example, weighs in at a measly 50kg. Carbon fiber has now been extensively used in production cars where performance is key and many modern vehicles now make use of engines machined from lightweight yet durable aluminum.
Weight distribution in terrain that can easily flip a car demands serious attention. Typically, an equal weight distribution is placed over the front and rear axles and fuel tanks are placed very low to assist with an optimal center of gravity. While packing components in as compact a manner as possible, mechanics need to have ease of access to exchange parts or service the cars quickly. Support teams also need to carry as few spares as possible so they can be mobile and efficient.
Tire development goes hand-in-hand with racing and again, translates directly into the types of compounds available for production vehicles. Tires need to be capable of handling rough terrain, while offering resistance to wear-and-tear.
Stopping a standard 4&#215;4 has become easier thanks to the testing that goes on in rally races, which is why disc brakes have become an industry standard rather than the antiquated drum configuration. Thanks to these brave drivers and manufacturers, road-going cars have become exponentially safer and far more capable and will continue to do so in the future.

Pushing The Limits  Of Endurance

When James Mwangi boarded a commercial plane in Nairobi, bound for Monte Carlo, he was nervous.
This was a big trip to the Ernst &amp; Young World Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Awards and the competition was tough. They call this award the Olympics, or World Cup, for entrepreneurs. It was a prize too far away in the mind of a 50-year-old like James Mwangi, CEO and group managing director of Kenya’s Equity Bank.
“I started wondering how I would be ranked when you hear stories of the personal wealth of these entrepreneurs. These people range from heads of industries like: the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world; the biggest ship building company in the world; supplier and producer of 90% of the world’s silicon chips—people with extensive experience—the majority of them are in their seventies,” he says.
Any fears in mid-air were confirmed when Mwangi’s commercial flight touched down in Monte Carlo on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Most of his competitors had arrived in their private jets.
“Not only did we not jet into the country, like most participants, we had to do a 45-minute drive to the hotel, while the others were lifted in helicopters,” Mwangi says.
“I was given a hotel room overlooking the beach on the 10th floor, overlooking yachts, more than 200 of them, expensive and luxurious yachts, at that. I realized that I am in a different place and not a usual place.”
So you can imagine the shock and surprise when the Nairobi banker, far from home, won.
“The whole hall was silent except our tables, with Nigerians and South Africans, of course.”
As they gritted their teeth and applauded, the illustrious competitors waited for the winner to walk to the front. Then, they waited a bit more.
“Instead of making my way to the podium, we started hugging and embracing each other with African joy and warmth. It was like thunder and something extraordinary had happened… We started singing the song, It’s Time for Africa and we were very excited about it—almost assuming that there was nobody else in the room until I was prodded by someone to make my way to the podium.”
Mwangi delivered the shortest acceptance speech in history, without protocol and almost incoherent, in his excitement. The roof-top drew back and fireworks crackled into the night sky over Monte Carlo—on the ground, Mwangi, the first African to win in 25 years of the awards, felt like exploding with them.
“This award makes a point that Africa is ready to be fully integrated with the rest of the world and what we hold are perceptions that are very far from reality. This is global recognition for Africans who are embracing the power of entrepreneurship to change the economic and social state of Africa,” says Mwangi.
Other African participants in these awards included: Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, group managing director of Access Bank in Nigeria and Braam van Huyssteen, founder and managing director of Tekkie Town.
It was recognition for the entrepreneur who opened up banking for millions of poor Kenyans through Equity Bank, in which he owns a 5% share.
Mwangi joined Equity Bank nearly 20 years ago when few gave a dime for its chances.
“The bank was declared technically insolvent and earmarked for closure when I joined in 1994,” recalls Mwangi.
Deposits were at Ksh22 million ($262,000), loans were at Ksh9 million ($107,000); there were 27 employees and losses were Ksh33 million ($393,000) against capital of Ksh3 million ($35,000). So the bank was technically insolvent to the tune of Ksh30 million ($357,000). He converted his family’s 15-year home loan of Ksh4 million ($71,000 in 1994) into capital, thus reducing the technical insolvency of the company to save it some interest.
“Instead of the traditional banking, we went to mass banking, high volume and very low margins. Consequently, we became relevant in terms of affordability. Through the use of technology, particularly that of mobile banking and agency, we were able to breach the last mile in terms of access to financial services,” says Mwangi.
“There was no way of going back to the family to say that we had lost everything, hence I had to work hard to redeem that which I had lost.”
Equity Bank grew and the deposits flowed in. Today the company has a turnover of about Ksh200 billion ($2.3 billion), with nearly 7,000 employees. It is listed on both the Nairobi and Uganda stock exchanges.
The Mwangi model is studied in several business schools including the Stanford Graduate Business School; Columbia Business School and Lagos Business School. Maybe, one day this method of making money at the bottom of the pyramid will be referred to by business graduates as “Mwangist” alongside Marxist and Keynesian theories.
It was the fruit of years of struggle for Mwangi. His father died when he was very young and his mother struggled to bring up her children alone. To raise money for school fees, Mwangi sold charcoal and fruit on the streets. It was his training ground for buying, selling and trading.
The blood of an entrepreneur ran through Mwangi’s veins from a tender age. As a young man, Mwangi formed a small company selling sand around Nairobi, in partnership with the current assistant minister of agriculture, Gideon Ndambuki. They had four lorries and a pickup truck; later they sold fruit and vegetables to hotels.
“Entrepreneurship is the cure for the African paradox of a continent with resources and human capital but that remains poor. The only ingredient lacking is entrepreneurship,” he says.
Anyone who can beat a fleet of high-flying entrepreneurs is surely worth listening to.

Tag: Monte Carlo

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The African, The Prince And The $10-Million Fight

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He Came, He Trembled, He Conquered