Being a stand-up comedian in Africa is not an everyday job. There are odd hours, infrequent deadlines and no defined career path. One day a rookie; the next a comedic sensation. For Riaad Moosa it took five years.
“The big moment that I felt I had arrived was when I finished my first one-man show Strictly Halal. I had finished the show and we had captured it on film. It was like waiting to exhale. Then we found out there was some issue with the recording, it was a problem with the live feed. That DVD ended up being a complete flop.”
For any comic, the first five minutes on stage tells them whether they have what it takes. Nerves can easily get the best of you but a tough crowd could render you hopeless.
“When we started comedy we never knew that you could have a career in it, we just loved it. I was part of the first group of comics who are now generally better known: Kagiso Lediga, David Kau, Loyiso Gola,
John Vlismas and Joey Rasdien. We all started out together,” says Moosa.
Although he is well-known on the comedy circuit, his most embarrassing moment onstage came in high school. Moosa was performing a magic trick that he had practiced and planned to perfection. The idea was to make a ball float across the stage.
“They didn’t tell me the night of the show that there would be a guy doing flash photography. So I was there in my dramatic David Copperfield hairstyle and my dramatic music while I made this ball float across the stage. Whenever the guy would take a picture you would see this washing line with a ball hanging onto it. And the kids in the audience would yell, ‘Mom, dad look it’s a wire’. It was so embarrassing. Even when I tried to be dramatic I ended up being a comedian,” he says.
Moosa was never a struggling artist. For him it was a smooth transition from doctor to comic.
“I started out in medical school then I took a year off and went to upper campus [at the University of Cape Town] to study other things that I was interested in. I did economics, I did Xhosa and then during that year I found stand-up comedy and I loved it.”
After the year off, Moosa went back to medical school and continued doing stand-up comedy on an amateur basis. He then graduated, completed his internship and community service, and when the opportunity came to appear on The Pure Monate Show he traded in the operating room for the stage.
“I never did anything dramatic in terms of the suffering and the starving for a while before I could pay the bills. I basically worked hard at both things and more opportunities opened with the comedy,” says Moosa.
In 2012, he made a breakthrough in film with Material, which received international acclaim. This led to Moosa’s latest role as South African political prisoner and freedom fighter, Ahmed Kathrada, in the Golden Globe nominated film, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Moosa is currently in the final stage of his stand-up tour, Doctors Orders, with Simmi Areff.
“He [Areff] opens for me and he does a good job, he does a few minutes before I go on stage. He warms up the audience for me.”
The famous comic with a booming acting career has always kept medicine close. He assists at his family’s medical clinic as well as hosts a medical show on TV.
At the end of the day, when the lights have dimmed and the last person has laughed, Moosa says there is only one place for a comic to go.
“Everybody goes back to the comedy club. It’s one of those things in your industry where no matter how big you are, you’ll always go back. You’ll find Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld going back to the little dingy comedy clubs to perform… It’s the true nature of stand-up comedy,” says Moosa.
After all, he’s just a guy, standing on a stage, hoping the crowd will laugh.   FL

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Just A Guy With A Mic

A little girl, not more than three years old, touches the lifeless body of her seven-year-old sister who has just succumbed to Ebola. She cries when her sister does not respond. They are both in the isolation ward at the Kailahun Treatment Centre at the epicenter of the Ebola crisis in eastern Sierra Leone. With the death of the last member of her family, the little girl’s world has shrunk. Who knows, if it will close in on her as well.
It’s a heart-breaking scene, but Esther Wanjiru, a volunteer doctor from Kenya with Medecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, has witnessed it many times over the last few months.
“Just days earlier, we had to prise the seven-year-old away from her little sister. They didn’t want to be separated, but both were very ill and [the older] simply became too sick to continue caring for the little one,” says Wanjiru.
Each time death comes calling at this Ebola camp, Wanjiru says it’s a terrible experience.
“When you watch this on television, these are Ebola patients. But when you are here, these are families suffering great tragedy.”
Wanjiru, 27, is on the frontline of the Ebola crisis along with countless other volunteer doctors who are putting their lives at risk to care for the sick and dying.
It’s a mammoth task trying to contain a virus that has the potential to decimate whole populations in days.
Wanjiru arrived in Kailahun District in July for a second mission with Doctors Without Borders. On her first mission, she had been shaken by the sight of the isolation wards.
“I had never seen anything like it before,” she says. However, returning yet again to the wards, she hopes the African public understands the magnitude of the Ebola scare.
“It’s high time the world woke up, this virus has spread so fast.”
The virus, Wanjiru claims, takes away more than a victim’s life and its ramifications are not stated enough.
“I quickly realized there are many factors, it’s not just about isolation wards, but about kids being left alone, communities who are afraid and patients being left to die in their homes. These are things that are not being addressed. Pledges are not enough, we need people in the field, we need more people hands-on.”
Wanjiru fears for her life, every day.
“Yes of course I’m scared, it’s one of the deadliest diseases on earth. When I left for the mission, my family thought I was crazy. But as a doctor, I thought if I can help in any way, why not? This virus can affect many countries and by doing this, I’m also helping protect my family, my friends and my country,” she says.
After her arrival, Wanjiru was briefed on the dangers and procedures in the field. And although she does not don the most convenient – or flattering – of ensembles, she is now used to the protective gear.
“Luckily it’s not that hot at the moment. I find the most difficult part of the clothing is having my face covered, but if it gets too much, I go outside for a break.”
The doctor works an 80-hour week, sometimes more when on call. Wanjiru’s day consists of ward rounds and daily briefings. And despite the long hours, she says she wakes up thinking about her patients from the previous day. Death is a constant here.
She remembers a toddler and his mother, both of who survived and were reunited. Their survival is a small triumph.
Wanjiru returns to Kenya in October and is looking forward to having chapatis (Indian bread) again. But the trip home may be temporary. The young doctor says she’s willing to return to the ward “in a heartbeat”.

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On The Ebola Frontline

The Ebola virus is spreading across Africa, taking fear with it.
“They say Ebola has no cure. The unknown has arrived. Nobody knows how to deal with this Ebola, not even the government!” John-Thomas Mensah, an Accra-based taxi driver tells FORBES AFRICA in the Ghanaian capital.
The Ebola scourge has spawned new social rules, with people being told they are not allowed to hug or shake hands. New superstitions have arisen, with some believing that drinking or bathing with salty water and eating the West African plant, bitter kola, will treat the disease. Some businesses are cashing in on the rush for disinfectants, soaps and hand sanitizers.
In August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the West Africa Ebola outbreak a public health emergency. It triggered global alarm as countries stepped up precautions and testing. It is the largest Ebola outbreak to date and began in Guinea in March. Liberia has been the worst hit, with 70% of the casualties. Ebola has infected nearly 5,400 and claimed 2,630 lives, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nigeria recorded eight deaths as at the end of August.
Beyond medicine, the epidemic has dampened business and left the informal economy, that fuels West Africa’s cross-border commerce, in a coma. Millions of West Africans are traveling traders and workers who crisscross the region’s porous borders for their daily bread.
Nigeria, which accounts for around 168 million of West Africa’s 260 million people, has not shut its borders, but almost every other country in the region has stopped border traffic, all in a bid to restrict the spread of Ebola. In late September, Nigeria declared itself Ebola-free.
Airlines discontinued flights to and from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and neighboring countries. Freight rates to West Africa are expected to rise as ship owners avoiding the region are choosing to berth at alternative ports. In mid-August, a Chinese-flagged ship heading out of Sierra Leone to Cape Verde had its crew quarantined in Sao Vicente.
The Ebola scare has also reared its ugly head in South Africa. The most worrying was a patient in August who displayed low risk symptoms and was admitted to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital as a precaution. Luckily, the patient tested negative for Ebola at the special diseases ward at the hospital.
“The patient is in isolation and there is no need for the general public to panic. He will not be put in contact with another patient. He is in isolation, in a special ward that deals with hemorrhagic fever,” says Joe Maila, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health.
Eleven hospitals across South Africa were issued with protective gear in readiness for any possible outbreak, says Maila.
East Africa is also taking precautions.
The health sector there is poorly funded and all member states agree that they need to coordinate efforts to keep Ebola at bay. Little of this is evident on the ground.
Uganda has suffered from Ebola in the past and claims it is well prepared. Together with Rwanda and Burundi, Uganda borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has confirmed strains of the virus.
The region is on high alert and any slight indication of the virus in these countries may lead to the type of isolation experienced in West Africa. Business, including East Africa’s fledging oil and gas sector, will be hit.
WHO classified Kenya as a high-risk area because of the number of flights from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to the infected countries. Kenya Airways, the third largest carrier on the continent, is feeling the pinch after suspending some of its flights to West Africa. RwandAir and Ethiopian Airways are yet to follow suit but promise stringent surveillance.
Help has come from far and near. The United States’ (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has about 60 disease detectives and other health experts in the region. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has reportedly committed $14.5 million. The Wellcome Trust and Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) have also announced a joint $10.8-million emergency research fund.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, through his Dangote Foundation, has given $3.2 million to the Ebola Emergency Operation Centre in Lagos, where the nation’s first case of Ebola was found in Liberian-American national Patrick Sawyer who died in a Lagos hospital four days after arriving from Liberia.
Despite these measures, and assurances by the WHO and local authorities, sections of the international community continue to fear that Ebola could spread across the vast African continent. With multinationals placing travel restrictions to West Africa, trips to Africa are either being postponed or canceled. The tourism sector in East and Southern Africa has been the hardest hit.
Ebola is not going away in a hurry.

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Africa’s Worst nightmare

It’s a typical Friday afternoon for comedian Simmi Areff. He sits across the table in the Joburg Theatre Canteen, South Africa, with a hookah pipe in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Every ten minutes his phone vibrates as his manager tirelessly tries to track him down. Areff is surprisingly calm for someone who is about to go on stage in two hours before the withering stare of a hard to please audience. It’s even more surprising when he says hasn’t got a clue what he is going to say.
“After tonight I’ll be able to tell you if I was ready or not, but the only thing I can do wrong is disappoint them. I have about 30 minutes of the show, but it’s that last 15 minutes. I don’t know if I’m going to talk to people or what. Lots of people say that talking to people is not part of a one man show, but it’s what I’m good at. It’s what I’m known for, so why not. So I’m going to talk to people, I don’t know who yet but I’m going to do it,” he says through a cloud of mint-flavored smoke.
Areff grew up in a Muslim part of Durban. He moved to Johannesburg in 2011 with $2.80 in his pocket and a dream of being a stand-up comedian. He spent his nights telling gags for his dinner, moving from bars to clubs in Melville, a trendy suburb in Johannesburg known for its comedy scene. Sometimes he did them for free merely for exposure. It was a hard time for him and his flatmates; especially as they are also struggling comedians. Once, they were so poor all they could afford for supper was a lollipop.
“That was many years ago. We didn’t have any food. We just had a Fizzpop. So we broke the lollipop and someone ate the stick,” he says.
“Our industry in this country tells you the game. You must go to clubs and do 500 open spots. You must then do intermediate spots. Then you must become a headliner. When you are a headliner you must start doing corporate gigs. You make all your money on the corporate circle then you do one man shows. I said no. I don’t do comedy to do corporate gigs. I do comedy to make people laugh,” says Areff.
“I miss home every day; I miss my mom irritating me and my dad trying to tell me jokes thinking I am going to use them.  Durban is a small town but once you move to Joburg you can go anywhere else in the world.”
Three years on from the day of the lollipop, Areff makes $1,800 a show.
As his name grew, so did the shows. Although he hated them he charged outrageous prices for corporate gigs and he was shocked that people were willing to pay.
<div id="attachment_31312" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31312" class="size-medium wp-image-31312" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/20131122-IMG_9439-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20131122-IMG_9439-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20131122-IMG_9439-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20131122-IMG_9439-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20131122-IMG_9439.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Simmi Areff</div>
“I had R30 in my bank account, and then that night I had R6030 in my account. Things change very quickly in Joburg,” he says.
Backstage, Areff sits in a corner with a pencil and paper writing out jokes for his first one-man show ‘Strictly Makrooh’ which opened in November. The comedian spent $760 to book the venue for his show. Areff sold out without spending a cent on advertising. He just tweeted about it. He even stopped the show for fans to take pictures to tweet about him.
Under a cool blue light the audience of 300 waits for the show. Areff emerges in to rapturous applause. His jokes take a swipe at a Muslim growing up in South Africa; the days of dodging jellyfish on Durban’s main beach, the days of having to shave his beard to avoid being looked upon as a terrorist.
Then he turns on the crowd. He targets a fashionably dressed man in his late fifties in the front row.
“Wow it’s so nice of you to come to my show. It’s so nice of you to bring your mother,” says Areff.
“It’s not my mother, this is my wife,” says the man.
The audience flinches. Areff looks up.
“Oh well sorry for you, I don’t know why you would married someone so old,” says Areff.
Off-stage controversy follows Areff like a bad joke. In 2012, Areff offended two Muslims so badly they waited for him backstage. Security arrested the two.
It is not the first time his jokes have been taken the wrong way. The South African National Halaal Authority (Sanha) threatened to sue Areff for using their logo for ‘Strictly Makrooh’. The logo read ‘HAHA-laal’.
“A lot of people ask if I got tickets sales for that, but the truth is I didn’t. Maybe during that period 40 tickets were sold but I had already sold 150 tickets. It was great publicity. Apparently I was even on TV in Australia,” says Areff.
“I was inundated with hate mail. My phone was off the hook with private number calls. It was here in the Joburg Theatre, October the 18th, a Friday. I knew I had to go face a few thousand people who might hate me or love me. I was sure they heard the news. I walked onto the stage and thought, wow this could go really bad. I went out and said ‘so I think you’ve heard about me this time. These guys just tried to take me to court.’ They all giggled. Then I knew I had nothing to worry about. My fans didn’t care.”
Areff has had his fair share of deaths on stage. His most recent in 2013 was on tour in the small town of Mafikeng, 300 kilometers North West from Johannesburg, with Riaad Moosa, who played Ahmed Kathrada in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) and the lead role in Material (2012).
“It was the first time that I had performed in front of Muslims in a long time. I was very nervous and I died on stage. They [the crowd] were very conservative. They didn’t get me. But then Riaad also went on and he also died. I felt much better,” he says.
Areff also wrote jokes for comedian Trevor Noah and Late Night News’ (LNN) Loyiso Gola. One of his first skits on LNN was a female Muslim in a Chador singing a parody to Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You. The video is still on YouTube.
It’s an incredibly hard market to break into, but it’s desperate for new talent says Areff.
“Loyiso Gola told me ‘you know what your problem is? Your ego is bigger than your comedy. But once your comedy is bigger than your ego you will see how things change’. This year my comedy has been the same level as my ego,” he says.
When it comes to the funniest jokes he has ever heard, Areff says it’s hard to keep track.
“I hear so many every day. But the funniest one I heard last year was when Eugene Khosa said that Mac Maharaj [the official spokesperson of the president of South Africa], was the autocorrect of Jacob Zuma. I remember I laughed out loud for days after that.”
The comedian has learned to roll with the punches; and has dodged a few. With $2.80 in his pocket Areff’s journey as a comedy entrepreneur has led him to the wild side of life. What a journey it has been from a man who wanted to share a lollipop.   FL

Simmi Areff

Hate Mail And  Death On Stage

One of the major highlights for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2013 was the launch of the X-Gen. It is a new trading platform that was introduced in a bid to improve and deliver a first-rate technology platform. The system will also enable the NSE to host other exchanges across the region and acts as a great impetus for new market participants to enter the African capital market space.
The NSE was established in 1960 as the Lagos Stock Exchange and as of December 2013 had 200 listed companies with a market capitalization of around $80 billion.
The NSE closed the year with two new equity listings on the main board, while the bond market recorded 19 new listings with an uptick in the value of new issues.
The bourse also had a re-launch of its Alternative Securities Market (ASeM) for small and medium companies. It introduced a new market structure for trading equities and Fixed-Income Market Making.
“In 2014, the Exchange’s primary focus will be on growing the capital market in preparation for achieving emerging market status. The NSE will facilitate access to and participation in the market; increase our footprint on the continent and deploy a risk framework to safe-guard the market venue,” said Oscar Onyema, the CEO of the NSE, at the exchange’s yearly review for 2013 and outlook projections for 2014.
“Our goal is to get promoted to the emerging market index,” he added.
The NSE started operations in Lagos in 1961 with 19 securities listed for trading. Data on listed companies’ performances are published daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.
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The Floor Worth $80 Billion

It’s raining heavily the morning Oluchi Orlandi arrives at the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos for the photo session with FORBES WOMAN AFRICA. The Nigerian-born supermodel has traveled from New York, where she lives, and the rain-soaked welcome has lifted her spirits.
She steps in and instantly fills the room with raw energy. There is a moment of quiet reservation, the lights and camera go on, and then there is magic.
It is clear Orlandi, 33, has faced the camera for years, she is a natural in front of it. She struts, sways and smiles for the lens, embodying grace, all six feet of her.
She was only 17 when she first came face-to-face with the camera – and became an instant sensation.
This was in 1998, when ‘Oluchi’ became a household name in Nigeria following her win as M-Net’s Face of Africa. The popular show on the South African TV channel brought her success and fame, and a life she never dreamt of.
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From the fashion runways of New York to Milan, showcasing lingerie to haute couture, this African beauty has traversed the globe, gracing billboards and the covers of international magazines such as Elle and Italian Vogue. She has been the face of campaigns for Victoria’s Secret and Gianfranco Ferre
More recently, Orlandi has added another feather to her cap. She now owns rights to the reality television show Africa’s Next Top Model, a show she brought to Africa in November 2013. As the African version of the globally-televized America’s Next Top Model show hosted by Tyra Banks, it has successfully completed its first season on the continent. The next season is currently being filmed. Orlandi is Executive Producer, head judge and host of the show.
Supermodel. TV hostess. Businesswoman. She has donned many hats. Orlandi says she has had an entrepreneurial streak from childhood.
Ordinary childhood
Growing up in Lagos with four siblings, raised by her mother, a nurse, and her father, a civil servant, Orlandi recalls being a tomboy who loved to play ping-pong in the street with the boys.
It was an ordinary childhood. “We had a normal routine of home, school and church. I remember being very entrepreneurial at a young age though. I’d generally sell and think of ways to bring additional income home. It was entirely my initiative and I wasn’t pressured into anything by my parents,” says Orlandi.
Continuously seeking new projects to invest in, she bought her first property, as an investment, at the age of 23. She recalls not sleeping for a month, worrying about the mortgage she had to pay off.
When the first season of Africa’s Next Top Model was aired, following young supermodel hopefuls from across the continent, it enjoyed note-worthy ratings, creating an appetite for more in viewers, and quelling Orlandi’s long-felt desire to create a better understanding of the modeling and fashion industry in Africa.
For this, she had to step out of herself, and reexamine the industry she had been a part of for almost a decade-and-a-half.
“I have seen this industry grow and metamorphose over this time. It is progressing at a fast rate but the general public has such a limited view of it. There is minimum insight to the enormity of this industry and its existing opportunities. I had a small team that worked day and night to bring it all together. We had designers, fashion editors, creative directors on the panel. It was a joy to put faces to names people had known and introduce their craft to the continent on a different platform. I wanted to bring all of these elements to television and bring the industry to people’s screens.”
Orlandi’s ambition is two-fold: to create awareness about fashion and also a platform for women. It is to modeling that Orlandi owes everything to. After all, it thrust her into the limelight and opened doors for her.
“I’m forever grateful to a corporate platform like M-Net that provided an opportunity like this to young African women, as I believe the continent doesn’t do enough for our women and their aspirations. Today, I appreciate this platform more than anything. For me and many other young girls that were given that opportunity, it is indelible and has shaped my views differently today. As the years go by, it has become my driving force to make a mark in the industry. All I ask myself these days is: ‘How can I give back?’ I don’t think I’ve done anything at all in comparison to what I should and could be doing and this quest has become my unrelenting drive.”
Though tall and slender, Orlandi never thought she would become a model. As a high school student, she wanted to be a banker, or an air hostess.
“I had a stronger banking aspiration though. I just thought it was glamorous. I loved the professional, powerful look of women in suits.”
But it was a family friend, a fashion designer she had become close to, who influenced her. The friend talked her into taking part in the modeling competition that was to change her life.
“I didn’t know what to expect. She took me to the auditions and my life took a 360-degree turn from there. It was a room of over a thousand girls all gunning for the title of Face of Africa. I was lucky enough to progress from stage to stage, eventually winning the title.”
Orlandi represented West Africa at the finals in Zimbabwe – and when she won, there was disbelief, and tears.
“I remember the night before the final stage, I just couldn’t sleep. I knew I had two other strong competitors. When my name was called, it took me a few minutes to believe it and I just broke down.”
Culture shock
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That was the launch of a sterling career but it was no cakewalk. Orlandi’s parents didn’t buy into it instantly as there were reinforced stereotypes about the modeling industry they weren’t comfortable with. They soon warmed up to the idea as time went by. This wasn’t all. It was time to face a world alien to her in many ways. Getting used to it was not easy.
“I suffered a real culture shock when I arrived in New York and was very homesick. I had never lived away from Lagos. I missed everything about home and wanted to be there. I went back home after a few months and was later convinced to return to New York for the sake of my career. Things got better from there and I learnt to make [New York my] home.”
While her career flourished and her calendar brimmed with bookings, Orlandi couldn’t miss the fact that her studies suffered. She had only completed high school when she made the move.
“My life had taken a very fast pace and my education had been affected. One thing I learnt from New York is that you can have anything you want if you work really hard. My education was still important to me and so I enrolled at New York University and started taking weekend classes for an associate degree in business. I later went back for two years to earn another [degree].”
She managed to juggle her studies and career, but starting a family threw a new set of challenges.
“I really struggled. I went through some emotional ups and downs and depression as I had to make a decision between my career and building a family. I was at the top of my career, working on Victoria’s Secret and pregnant with my first son – they had no idea at that point. This posed a threat to my career. I went through it all however and when I had my son, I had to say to myself, ‘you have to keep it going, there are women who have gone before you and have survived the patch’. I adjusted my view.”
Today, Orlandi is married to Italian fashion designer Luca Orlandi and is the proud mother of two children, aged seven and three. To upcoming models, she has a word of advice.
“Take advantage of every single minute. Don’t be culture-blind. Use fashion as your platform to see the world. Have a voice and understand the woman that you are. Don’t be scared to take risks.”
Orlandi is taking new risks now and constantly challenging herself.
“Back then, as a fledgling model, I was just focused on myself. It was all about me. Now, I am my biggest critic. I punch myself everyday saying ‘there must be more you can do Oluchi’,” she says.
Orlandi is very optimistic about the future of African fashion.
“I talk a lot about South Africa as they have been more structured and highly consistent in their approach than any other country on the continent, using magazines and varying portals to showcase the strength and magnitude of this industry.”
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In 2007, Oluchi partnered with the Shine Group to launch O Model Africa, a South Africa-based modeling agency dedicated to selecting and developing African models.
Yet, she feels more needs to be done.
“We need to praise ourselves more. Nobody will do it for you. We should stop idolizing the West so much and start celebrating and marketing ourselves better. I am an African woman and I know beyond doubt that the only way to build a better Africa is to embody, think and celebrate our own grand feats.”
And to achieve her goals, Orlandi has a simple philosophy, which she reveals before wrapping up for the day: “If you’re good to life, it’ll be good to you.”
<h1>Oluchi Unplugged</h1>
<h3>Jan Malan</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-29539 size-thumbnail alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-028-032-Oluchi-Orlandi-003-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-028-032-Oluchi-Orlandi-003-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-028-032-Oluchi-Orlandi-003-100x100.jpg 100w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
<h4>“The first time I laid eyes on Oluchi back in 1997, I knew she would become a star. Oluchi is an incredible businesswoman; she instinctively crafted and honed her career without losing herself in the glamor of it all. Oluchi has become a dear friend and compatriot and she is the one who guided me on the pitfalls of doing business in New York City,” says Jan Malan, Head of Production at Umzingeli Productions, one of Africa’s leading show producers.</h4>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Duro Olowu</h3>
<h4>“Oluchi is great to work with. Super smart and funny too. Her beauty is effortless and so she has a fantastic way of giving her best without it looking forced. And she understands the camera and clothes too, you can’t get better than that,” says Nigerian-born London-based designer Duro Olowu, who has worked with her.</h4>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-29540 size-thumbnail alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-028-032-Oluchi-Orlandi-004-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-028-032-Oluchi-Orlandi-004-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-028-032-Oluchi-Orlandi-004-100x100.jpg 100w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />

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Beyond The Catwalk

It was nine days of hell that Ray Choto will never forget. Live electric wires were pushed into his genitals; it was so excruciating that he snapped the chain of his handcuffs. With his editor, Mark Chavunduka, he was stripped and blindfolded at a military base in Cranborne, a suburb of Harare. Their captors shoved their heads in drums of water. They were forced to do push-ups in the rain, in between beatings, and afterwards their torturers kicked them through the wet grass to clean off the blood.
It all began because of a news story the now late Chavunduka, founding editor of The Standard, Zimbabwe’s independent Sunday newspaper, and Choto, the newspaper’s former chief investigative reporter, wrote in January, 1999 that 23 soldiers, including seven officers, were under arrest for inciting their comrades to overthrow president Robert Mugabe. The authorities wanted to know who leaked the story. The two young African men suffered at the hands of their own people but never revealed their sources.
“As a journalist, my responsibility is to protect my sources. Even if it meant that I was going to be thrown into jail or killed. I was ready for it in defense of ethical journalism,” says Choto, 15 years on.
“The torture was very barbaric. I was handcuffed, put in leg irons, and tortured by way of electric shocks all over my body. They also hit me with wooden planks, clenched fists &#8230;”
Their crime? According to Choto, it was allegedly contravening a section of the Law and Order Maintenance Act. They challenged the constitutional validity of the controversial colonial law and the Zimbabwe Supreme Court declared the provision null and void and the case fell away.
Both were flown to London for psychological and physical treatment. In May 2000, Choto received further treatment in Australia.
Contrary to reports that he fled Zimbabwe, Choto explains that he went to the United States (US) on September 6, 2000 to take up the prestigious John S. Knight Fellowship for professional journalists at Stanford University in California. It was during his first year at the university that Mugabe’s government introduced strict laws that made it difficult for journalists to work.
The program appointed Choto as a senior fellow, extending his stay in the US for another year. This came at a time when Zimbabwe’s government news publications labeled Choto an enemy of the state. He cites an article that detailed a press conference, held by the military and the police, in which they warned the independent media that they were ready to treat those that write negatively about Zimbabwe the same way they treated Choto and Chavunduka.
Choto went home on the first of day of 2002 and planned to be in Zimbabwe for eight days. A senior source in the military agreed to secretly meet him at a hotel in Harare. Choto had called him to tell him that he was in the country and asked if he had time to meet for a drink. The military source sounded hesitant, but agreed. They communicated in code in case the phone was bugged. When they met, the military source asked Choto why he came back in dangerous times and told him to leave the country.
Choto got on a plane and left. He then telephoned family and friends to ask whether he should return. All, including his mother, said no. Choto, now 13 years in the US, says he will not go home as long as the ruling party, Zanu-PF, is in power.
“The loss of my mother in May 2010 was, and remains, a thorn in my heart. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to Zimbabwe to see her laid to rest.”
Now a senior editor at the Voice of America (VOA) in the Africa Division in Washington D.C., Choto says that it is challenging to work on stories from a distance.
As Mugabe begins his seventh term, Choto clings on to hope.
“The solution lies in the hands of the people of Africa. They have to elect democratic leaders and reject undemocratic leaders who come to power through chicanery.”
You have to listen to a man who shed blood for his beliefs.   FL

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Bloodied But Unbowed:  The Journalist Prepared To Die

The international buzz around contemporary African art has never been louder.
African art has always been celebrated on the African continent, but has singularly failed to be regarded as collectible by most Western mainstream collectors and museums. The most important art works created in Africa have long been considered to be antique and traditional.
Modern African art’s exclusion from the Western mainstream has been controversial, so the pace of change in 2013 has been exhilarating. Major museums in London and New York have showcased leading African artists and have been buying their work enthusiastically.
Dramatic installation art pieces—three-dimensional works that are often created in exhibition spaces—by Ghanaian artist El Anutsui are being displayed by major museums both sides of the Atlantic. And London’s Tate Modern, a leader in art trends internationally, has recently set up an African Art Acquisitions Committee to purchase works by contemporary African artists, an acknowledgment that the Tate’s permanent collection was too focused on Western European and North American art.
The Venice Biennale, possibly the world’s most influential contemporary art exhibition, had record attendances from African countries last year, with the leading prize, the Golden Lion, going to the Angolan pavilion, a major boost for African contemporary art.
It all adds up to a sneaking suspicion that this is the age when African art truly becomes collectible.
Ask Bonhams, the only international auction house to specialize in contemporary African art, and they will tell you the African market is booming. Buyers include international museums and private collectors from Europe, the United States and particularly from Nigeria. And Bonhams deny that it’s a bubble.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-31298" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2014/10/Lot-129-Enwonwu-Mirror-300x150.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="150" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Lot-129-Enwonwu-Mirror-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Lot-129-Enwonwu-Mirror-600x300.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Lot-129-Enwonwu-Mirror-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Lot-129-Enwonwu-Mirror.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
For the last five years, Bonhams have held their annual Africa Now auction.
“Five years ago it was difficult. We didn’t know who our prospective buyers were, we had no mailing list, and it was a daunting prospect,” says auctioneer Giles Peppiatt, the director of contemporary African art at Bonhams.
“Contrast that with our latest sale in May last year which was our most successful yet, we smashed 20 world records for prices made by an artist and we sold 91% of items up for sale. In total we achieved £1.3 million ($2.1 million),” says Peppiatt.
“We sold seven wooden sculptures, made by Ben Enwonwu for the Daily Mirror newspaper in 1960, for £360,000 ($580,000) against an estimate of £80,000 ($129,000) to £120,000 ($194,000).”
Bonhams most notable moment came in May 2012 when an El Anutsui wall hanging made from bottle tops welded together with copper wire sold for £542,000 ($890,000). It is the highest price yet paid for African art at auction.
It’s not surprising that prices for El Anatsui, a celebrated Ghanaian artist living and working in Nigeria, are rocketing. His massive sheets of shimmering bottle top installation art have been bought by major galleries, and last summer he won a major art prize, the Charles Wollaston Award, for his giant installation draped outside the Royal Academy exhibition in London.
Major events in Africa focusing purely on contemporary African Art have been building interest for years. The Joburg Art Fair is well established and has been dedicated to selling living African artists’ work since 2008. The Dak’Art Biennale goes back to 1992, providing a creative platform in Dakar, Senegal for more than 20 years.
International art buyers with deep pockets descend on London during Frieze Week in October, and the auction houses and exhibitions compete to take money from them. This year they are joined by 1:54, a new art fair that was launched in Europe, to take the unique energy from the current African art scene and to sell directly to global collectors in London.
1:54 is the brainchild of Touria El Glaoui, the daughter of respected Moroccan artist Hassan El Glaoui.
“By hosting this fair in Somerset House in central London our intention is to foster exchange between artists, curators, collectors and the public from all backgrounds and nationalities,” says El Glaoui.
The fair has been named after the 54 nations that make up Africa, and aims to represent all countries and styles, as well as artists from the African diaspora.
Edson Chagas, the Angolan photographer whose work became the basis for the winning Angolan Venice Biennale pavilion, is one of 70 artists represented at 1:54, as is Abdoulaye Diarrasouba, known as Aboudia, from Cote d’Ivoire.
Several of Aboudia’s large-scale acrylic on canvas paintings have been bought by the Saatchi Gallery and are soon to appear in a Saatchi exhibition. His style is inspired by graffiti and depicts street life and the traumas of war.
Aboudia was born and worked in Cote d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan until the most recent civil war in 2010. Now he moves between Abidjan and New York.
“I’m exhibiting at the 1:54 fair because I feel it’s important to show my work to people abroad and to venture beyond the Ivory Coast,” he says.
Aboudia thinks others should follow the example of Charles Saatchi, the owner of the Saatchi Gallery.
“He has the courage to search for new things and nurture them. He doesn’t wait until [artists’] careers have already been developed. Life is about taking risks. Emerging artists benefit from being brought to the world’s attention,” he says.
The fact that quality African art is being widely bought by leading galleries is music to the ears of Oba Nsugbe, a leading Nigerian barrister working in Britain. He is a member of the Tate Modern African Art Acquisitions Committee, which is responsible for delivering a detailed strategy to purchase world class African art.
“This would have been impossible to conceive 10 or 15 years ago. We are placing African art alongside other world class art where it belongs—to be conserved in a world-class forum. What more do you want?”   FL

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The Smart Money is  on African Art

<h3>What is a budget deficit?</h3>
A budget deficit occurs when a government’s expenditures become more than the revenue it has collected. It is common for governments to run a deficit and to use debt (bonds) to finance them. The interest from the debt needs to be paid out each year. If debt is too high, creditors’ concerns about a country’s ability to repay its debt rise and will hence demand higher interest rates. It becomes harder for governments to raise funds as their debt levels rise too far.
Faced with this problem, a country can either default or restructure its debt.
<h3>Defaulting</h3>
Argentina defaulted in 2001 on $81 billion worth in bonds and opted to devalue its currency to be able to pay its debt.
In 2012, Greece experienced the largest restructuring in history. After years of living beyond its means, high budget deficits and the poor economic climate made it difficult for the country to make payments on its bonds and led to downgrades and high interest rates on new debt. It eventually became too expensive for the country to roll over its debt, leading to the Greece debt crisis. The country is moving towards recovery.
<h3>Another route</h3>
Much closer to home, in April 2009, Liberia bought back $1.2 billion in commercial paper from its private foreign creditors. The debt, twice the country’s GDP and a quarter of the foreign debt, was bought back at an almost 97% discount of the face value. This was achieved after two years of negotiations and with the help of the World Bank, Germany, the United States (US), Britain and Norway.
In 2007, Liberia’s debt totaled $4.9 billion, 700% of GDP. That year the World Bank and African Development Banks reduced the country’s debt by $400 million and $250 million respectively. The previous default was in the mid-1980s.
Last year the world saw the US government’s shutdown. The financial year ended and a new budget had to be agreed upon by the House and Senate; without this, non-essential services were put on hold. The second issue was that the government had run a large budget deficit and its repayments were due. The Democrats wanted to increase tax while the Republicans called for a reduction in spending. A deal was struck and disaster averted.
In the first couple of months of the new financial year, the government’s deficit was reduced by 22%. Federal revenue climbed by 10% in the same period.
<h3>South Africa’s deficit</h3>
Rising debt costs and below target tax receipts are not helping ease South Africa’s debt. The 2013/14 budget deficit is forecast at 4.6% of GDP. Public sector borrowing increased to 7.4% of GDP in 2012/13. The country’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, has already vowed to maintain spending limits curbing wage growth. For the 2012/2013 tax season the South African Revenue Services collected R814 billion ($75 billion). Lower economic growth rates in recent years have made it hard to continue using tax revenue to reduce the budget deficit, and there has been an increased reliance on foreign investors to help finance budget deficit.
The South African government adopted a counter-cyclical fiscal policy to shield the country from the recent recession, which worked. On the flip side, the country moved from a surplus of 1.7% of GDP to a deficit.
It is clear, that unlike the general public, governments have a lot more options available to them when they fail to pay their bills. The lights won’t get shut off and the furniture repossessed.   FL

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Deficits And  Debt Ceilings

Last year, in the shadows of the Zimbabwean elections were whispers of a man who took risks by challenging people to question Robert Mugabe’s 26 years of power. At the click of his mouse he passed out classified information that spread like wild fire. They call him Baba Jukwa.
Jukwa, who calls himself a disgruntled Zanu-PF insider, agreed to an interview with FORBES LIFE AFRICA via Facebook to protect his identity. He has one clear mission: To see Zimbabwe rise to its former glory.
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“Zimbabwe is falling, but its people are not, and these same people shall lift it up as they express themselves through the spirit of freedom… But I will tell you without mincing words, even Mugabe himself is possessed by this same spirit of freedom, only that he suppresses it daily,” he says.
Jukwa’s posts included a prediction of a former Zanu-PF member of parliament, Edward Chindori-Chininga’s death, who died in a car accident after revealing corruption in the diamond sector. Jukwa also posted the HIV statuses of Zanu-PF politicians.
In November, reports accused Jukwa of being Zimbabwe’s information minister Jonathan Moyo. Others believe Jukwa is more than one person because the blogs betray a number of writing styles. Whoever it is, they are certainly an insider.
“I have over the past 33 years worked in a place where everything is naked and bare, so it is not uncommon at all for me to know everything and anything.”
Jukwa says he has no fear because he is a dead man already. All he wants is for the country to be free.
“On that day, when the people have finally freed themselves from the chains of oppression and once again Zimbabwe is a shining nation as the ancestors would have had it, it shall be a great day of celebration, mark my words.”
Across the Atlantic lives a social media guru who could be considered Jukwa’s brother in arms. At least he is unafraid to use his own name. Dressed in torn jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers, he looks like an average Joe. His red beard and large earrings may be the reason you give him a second look, but there is more to him than meets the eye.
In 2011, Harper Reed took the job of technology chief for Barak Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. His job was to gather voters with the use of social media. The strategy was a gem and Obama made history again, this time for becoming the first president to be re-elected with the help of his social media campaign.
Although Reed was working for one of the most powerful people in the world, it was not enough to get him into a suit and tie.
“This one time [Obama] walked out of the office on the campaign and walked up to my buddy Dillan and I and the first thing he said to us was, ‘Ah, you guys must be the tech team.’ I think it was our beards that gave us away.”
Flushed with the success of Obama’s re-election campaign, could Reed consult in the tricky politics of Africa?
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31291 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/2011-10-23-22.29.00-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2011-10-23-22.29.00-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2011-10-23-22.29.00-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2011-10-23-22.29.00-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2011-10-23-22.29.00-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2011-10-23-22.29.00.jpg 640w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“Probably not. For me, if I really supported the person, then yes. The thing is, you must do this because you want to do it and not because you want money. Because it’s politics, you have to treat it that way,” he says.
Reed says it is important to fight media censorship. He speaks of the importance of a transparent government to avoid having the same people in power over and over again.
“In my time in South Africa, I talked to a lot of people about politics and there was this fear of continuation of a single government for a long time without change… If people feel like it really matters to them, they need to step up and solve the problem.”
Unlike Jukwa, Reed lives in comparative freedom.
“People talk a lot of shit on the internet, as you can imagine. It’s just how it works on the internet. People are mean and they can do crazy things. But for the most part, there’s a lot of work done in the United States to make it so that people don’t feel intimidated. I’ve never felt like I had to hide.”
With elections around the corner for some African countries, perhaps it is time to adopt a word that was significant on Obama’s road to victory. A word both feared and revered: Change.   FL

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Guerilla Bloggers

When Vivian Kleynhans grew up in the remote fishing village of Paternoster on South Africa’s West Coast, not in her wildest dreams did she think that one day she would sign a major export deal with the world’s largest discounter, Walmart.
Last year, that happened.
Kleynhans, 49, shipped four 40-foot containers of her Seven Sisters wines to the United States (US), where Walmart has been selling them in more than 500 stores countrywide since September.
“We are hoping to ship this amount every three months from now on, if sales go well,” says Kleynhans.
Although she’s not allowed to disclose the size of the contract, Kleynhans is certain of one thing: “This deal will change our lives.”
Even before Walmart discovered the Seven Sisters wine brand, Kleynhans had made a success of the label that she launched in 2005 from scratch.
After growing up with six sisters and a brother in a poor village, survival was difficult. Straight after graduating from high school, Kleynhans had to take a secretarial job at a construction company to help her family financially. When she didn’t get a promotion a few years later, she started working for a real estate agent, then moved into human resources and soon thereafter joined an insurance company.
She slowly worked her way up, gaining business experience with every new employment she entered.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-31284" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/MG_8361final-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MG_8361final-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MG_8361final-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MG_8361final-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MG_8361final.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“Throughout my career, I was working towards owning my own business that could provide a legacy for my family. Eventually, I felt ready to set up my own company,” says Kleynhans.
She launched African Roots Wine Brands in 2005 after the South African government set up a trust to help formerly disadvantaged people enter the wine industry. Her idea was to sell wines that would represent her family and her cultural history.
For a year, Kleynhans searched for the right wine farm to partner with. She wanted a farm that could provide her with seven different wine styles—one for her and each of her six sisters. She eventually teamed up with Swartland, a winery located in the region where she grew up.
“My vision was to build a company that my sisters could be part of. Because we are seven, I wanted to partner with a winery that could provide us with a wide range of styles,” she says.
Each sister personally helped create their own varietal. The result: a Bukettraube Odelia, Rosé Twena, Moscato Yolanda, Sauvignon Blanc Vivian, Pinotage Dawn, Merlot June and Cabernet Sauvignon Carol.
That same year, Kleynhans took the Seven Sisters range to the Soweto Wine Festival near Johannesburg. It was the first trade fair she had ever attended. As luck would have it, she met an American importer, Selena Cuffe of Heritage Link Brands, who invited her to present her wines in the US.
It was a tough start. Without an advertising budget to speak of, Kleynhans had to market her wines by doing road shows across the US, garnering customers one by one. It was a tedious strategy, but it paid off over time.
The first container of Seven Sister wines left South Africa in 2007. A year later, Kleynhans shipped four containers. In the third year, she sent nine. By early 2013, African Roots Wine Brands was selling 110,000 bottles a year in 42 states to supermarkets, wine stores, specialty stores and discounters. Buyers included major chain stores, such as Whole Foods, Super Value and Disneyworld.
“Over the years, we managed to become an established brand in the US. Our drive is to grow a household brand,” says Kleynhans.
She also landed a four-year contract with American Airlines, which served the Vivian Sauvignon Blanc on all of its flights.
“It was one of the first big business deals we signed. It helped us a lot to stay in the game,” she says.
Ironically, it took Kleynhans longer to enter the wine market in her home country.
“South Africa only woke up after we made a name for ourselves in the US. We’ve been trying for some years to get into the South African market. But it’s so saturated, we struggled to gain entry,” says Kleynhans.
When Walmart bought a 52% stake in South African chain Massmart in mid-2011 for a whopping $1.59 billion, South African antitrust authorities, concerned that the deal would lead to job losses and product domination, obliged the retail giant to set up a $20 million-fund to support small suppliers.
It was through this fund that Kleynhans eventually managed to place Seven Sisters on Massmart’s Makro shelves in South Africa.
A second Walmart development fund, this time aimed at providing $20 billion to small, women-owned suppliers, represented the jackpot. Kleynhans had been supplying Seven Sisters to American retail warehouse chain Sam’s Club, one of Walmart’s sister companies, for a while.
“Walmart was looking for companies all over the world to find suppliers that met the criteria for the fund. The buyer from Sam’s Club hooked us up,” says Kleynhans.
From there, the deal snowballed. In December 2012, Walmart’s global sourcing manager visited Kleynhans at the nine-hectare farm she had just bought in Stellenbosch, one of South Africa’s top wine regions. He invited her to spend a day at Walmart’s headquarters in Arkansas in February last year. A month later, Kleynhans was invited to Walmart’s global supply summit. Shortly thereafter, she sealed the deal.
For Kleynhans, this is just the beginning. She recently planted her own cultivars—a Shiraz and a Chardonnay—which are tended by her brother, John Brutus, a viticulturist. The first bottles of the new label, to be named after her brother, will be sold from a boutique cellar on the estate by 2015.
Kleynhans is also opening a restaurant on the farm. Like all her ventures, the eatery will stay in the family and be managed by all seven sisters.
“It will be run like my mother’s dining room.”   FL

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Stateside  Sisterhood Success

Beer to brew and dragons to slay—it’s the top of the to-do list for South Africa’s small but growing brigade of microbrewers.
Brewers may have the dream of creating the perfect amber liquid and the business savvy to unleash it on the world, but the bureaucratic and legal hurdles to get their product to market are nothing short of a Kafkaesque nightmare.
South Africa has around 90 operational microbreweries at present and dozens more backyard brewers regularly making their appearances at brew-offs and small beer tasting events. But more than staking a claim on local palates, they want to capitalize on the craft beer revolution and become major players.
To brew, to distribute and to sell beer requires licenses and here lurks the untamed, fire-spewing monster. The licensing process is a notoriously clunky and costly process by the time paperwork and the attorney or consultant fees are thrown in. Worst of all, there are no apparent reasons why it should be this way.
Ndumiso Madlala is the founder of MadMead, the company brewing Soweto Gold. Madlala is a former master brewer for South African Breweries (SAB). In 2011, he decided to go it alone to become as he calls it a mini-SAB that is able to target the rising black middle class in Soweto.
“People in townships are getting robbed because they’re not getting to taste the beer styles that craft brewers are putting out there,” says Madlala.
Madlala is a 51% majority shareholder of his company. He had to secure private funding from a Swedish investor and get sponsorship from the Independent Development Corporation (IDC) to plug huge financial gaps before he even got started. It cost in the region of $790,000 to get his brewery on target to brew three million liters a year when they opened for business at the beginning of the year.
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“The license process has cost us R12,000 ($1,184) and we had to use a liquor license consultant too. We had to go through the usual things like tax clearances, police clearances and all of that but we had to wait month after month with no developments,” says Madlala.
Eventually MadMead struck a deal with established microbrewery Nottingham Road in KwaZulu-Natal to piggyback on their license to start brewing.
“You have to secure premises for brewing in a certain area, away from schools and churches and you have to have a lease agreement before you apply, which means you end up paying rent for months and not using it for brewing,” he says.
It is a frustrating wait and a blow to business innovators who are chipping away at a market previously cornered by the giants of SAB and Brandhouse.
Natalie and Stephen Meyer, the co-owners of the Clarens Brewery in the Free State, applied for their license in 2006, which she says may have been a time when licensing was a little easier.
They started out as seasonal home brewers making the most of windfall produce on their cherry and apple farm. When they decided to get into the industry to sell their brew, it cost them around $1,184, including lawyer fees and a four-month wait. When they moved to a more prominent location in the tourist town a few years later they had to reapply for their license. This time it cost them $1,677 and a nine–month wait.
“The typical process is that you have to eventually get a lawyer who starts legal proceedings against the liquor board, giving them 28 days to respond. Only then will the board get into action,” she says.
Meyer is frustrated that as a small business, an entrepreneur and an employer in a sector that ticks many boxes for success, they are not better supported.
“I know guys who have had to wait anything between two and four years and then eventually have to get lawyers on board, which of course costs money, to get a license,” she says.
“It makes no sense,” says Thea Blom, owner of Oakes Brewhouse in Modderfontein, west of Johannesburg.
It is an all-woman microbrewery that is a perfect addition for the historical village within the suburb.
“Craft beers are really on the map right now and we knew this would be a great fit for the village,” says Blom.
But they were forced to brew under court interdict until their license was finally approved, 18 months later.
“With the liquor boards making licensing processes so impossible, it just means more people will simply operate illegally. It’s crazy because the more people you have properly licensed the more people they could have on the tax base and they can audit them anytime,” she says.
Marius Blom of Couzyn Hertzog &amp; Horak attorneys, who does licensing applications in all nine provinces, says the long delays are stifling start-up businesses and tying up the liquor boards in court cases. Costs are ultimately passed onto taxpayers. These numerous failings have left the entire licensing process a sham.
“There is a lack of knowledge of the law; a lack of administration, which can be as basic as proper filing; and a lack of capacity or plain inefficiency,” says Blom of the majority of the provincial boards as well as the National Liquor Authority.
Blom says, in the years after 1994, the National Liquor Authority was decentralized into provincial boards with the intention of making licensing simple and cost effective.  The opposite has happened. He adds that while alcohol has been regarded a dangerous commodity for the last 100 years in need of regulation, 90% of all alcohol sellers in this country today do so illegally in unlicensed taverns and shebeens.
Microbrewers though must still face off the dragon of licensing and are left wondering why they are the ones left to put out fires.

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Hopping Hurdles

Stephan Meyer and his wife, Natalie, sold their computer business to move to Clarens, a quaint tourist town nestled in the foothills of the Rooiberge, in the Free State, South Africa.
In 1999, they bought an apple and cherry orchard of 13,000 trees for the export market. Then Meyer did something unexpected, he became a brewmaster. Since the taps began flowing in December 2006, the Clarens Brewery remains the only microbrewery, or brewpub as he calls it, in the province. Meyer began brewing 450 liters a month; today, he brews 8,000, has a selection of three ciders and six beers and thousands of thirsty customers.
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“It’s a very nice career change,” says Meyer.
But why did they do it?
“We always wanted to come back because I’m from this area. We always spoke about vaporware, where nothing is tangible […] It’s something that doesn’t exist, it’s like an empty hole. We always dealt with computer software, it’s something that you can’t see. Now, everything that we do—we’ve got the farm and we make the beer—you can touch and feel and see,” he says.
At first, Meyer battled to perfect the cider because he used culinary instead of cider apples. So, he joined Worthogs Brew Club and two years later began selling apple, cherry and pineapple cider. Soon after, he became a certified beer judge and began to brew.
“Seven years ago, we got a small 50-liter brewery in town. Currently, we are brewing on an 800-liter system.”
Meyer outgrew the brewery and relocated to a bigger premise on the corner of Clarens town square. In early 2012, he moved to a prime position on Main Street. While his rent doubled, his turnover quadrupled and so Meyer encourages business owners to invest in the location of their business.
“These premises actually pushed our sales up from 2,000 to 8,000 liters a month. We just moved 200 meters, now we’re a lot more visible,” says Meyer.
Today, Clarens Brewery serves 2,500 customers each month, many of whom are attracted by the free tasting. It helps one settle on a favorite—whether it’s the flagship Blonde, with a biscuity aftertaste; the award-winning Red, the amber ale with a fruity aroma; or the Stout with its coffee aftertaste. All this, while watching the brewmaster at work.
Meyer is active in the beer community, he attends craft beer festivals and enters his hand-crafted brews into competitions.
“The last time we won something was at the SA on Tap Festival in Randburg, Johannesburg in March 2012. Our IPA [Indian Pale Ale, 7% alc.] came first. It’s very bitter but it’s quite a balanced beer.”
Business is flowing—now is the time to open a brewery. A small brewery with second-hand or reconditioned stainless steel vessels and equipment can be established for around R300,000 ($27,600), he says.
But just like barley and hops, opportunity needs to be harvested.
“There is a lot of growth in the industry. We were very lucky with the industry that we’re in, but for now anybody that gets into this micro-brewery industry, it’s the right time to do so […] Your profit margins on these types of businesses are very high. You should be able to produce a beer for about 30% of the cost that you sell it for,” he says.
And one needs a sober business plan. Meyer sells directly to his end customer, 50 meters away from where the beer is brewed.
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“Sixty five percent of our sales are bottles that are bought here. The guys come in over the weekend and have two or three beers. When they leave, they take a box. Nobody can take our business away because they can’t take our customers away. And there is no middleman, so we take most of the margin.”
While 95% of his customers are tourists, locals keep the demand high. As artisinal products are becoming popular, he has witnessed a move away from mainstream lagers.
But it’s not easy running a business in a remote town. The brewery uses reserve tanks when there is no water and dumps beer if there is a power outage.
“All the raw materials, our malt, hops, everything, we have to transport here and the transport cost is quite high. All the specialty malts are imported from Germany, we collect them in Johannesburg,” says Meyer.
Regardless of the challenges, his kegs empty—a sign that beer remains the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage.   FL

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Money On Tap In The Slow Lane

David Martin works in the mines during the day; but at night puts away the hard hat and blue prints to tackle his passion with pipes, hops and malt.
Martin, an industrial engineer, his brother Andrew, a communications manager and Grant York, an aeronautical engineer, are trying to live their dream. The three entrepreneurs have opened up their own brewery, SMACK! Republic, a bright new addition to the ballooning craft beer market in South Africa that has already won an award.
All three chipped into the brewery in the hope it will be their lives.
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“Beer has been part of our lives for many years, since late school days. The passion started when we started home brewing. What’s nice about beer is it gives you the opportunity to brew awesome beer in your garage at your house. Wine is a bit more sophisticated and spirits need some distillers. The ease of getting into the hobby is why we developed a love for it,” says Martin.
“We started with kit brews in little plastic fermenters and then moved up to all grain brewing. We then started experimenting and decided to take it to the next level.”
That experimentation makes their beer stand out from the rest. The three are not afraid to use strange ingredients: black pepper, coffee and naartjie; a South African citrus fruit, in their brews.
On the morning of our interview, SMACK! Republic launched their latest offering, a brew of rooibos tea and honey. The flavors may sound odd but the first customer seemed to approve at 10AM.
“This is the perfect breakfast beer,” he remarks with a grin.
Getting to this point has been difficult. The initial cost to set up the brewery and obtain a license took its toll.
“The capital required to start a brewery is generally quite a lot. A lot of the equipment is imported because local suppliers aren’t yet at a stage where they can supply this because it is a fairly new industry on a micro scale,” says Martin.
They also had to vault bureaucratic hurdles. The license delayed their launch by two months.
“The liquor board claim it is a three month turnaround to claim a manufacturer’s license. It took us eight months and that was with an agent who facilitated the process. We had to set up this brewery in a building that was not built for a brewery. We needed to change a few things inside to get through the health inspection and other legal issues.”
Besides the steep expenses and administrative nightmares, the lack of sleep took its toll.
“We opened in March [2013]. Up until recently all three of us had day jobs. We work from 8AM to 5PM, come to the brewery at 6PM and then go home at 2AM. Doing that for six months is hectic. You have to be passionate about beer to do it. It is seven days a week of something that is a business but also a passion at the same time,” says Martin.
As of September, Martin’s brother, Andrew, started working fulltime. This has taken a lot of the pressure off as he can now brew during office hours. It allows the other two to focus on selling beer at their brewery and at events on weekends.
“It is more fun now because we have normal hours during the week,” says Martin.
As fun as it may be, opening a microbrewery in a market that is dominated by South African Breweries (SAB) is risky. A lot of money has been invested into the business and failure will be equivalent to pouring their painstakingly crafted beer down the drain. To avoid this, SMACK! Republic did their homework before opening.
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“We did research in the local market and spoke to other brewers for around 18 months. We then came up with a business plan,” says Martin.
“There is a risk but we based ourselves in an area, in Maboneng, which is very open to craft beer and the people that come here want something different to drink. We get a constant supply of thirsty customers, especially on the weekends.”
The Maboneng Precinct is an arty area, full of galleries, sidewalk cafes and trendy restaurants which attracts the young, the restless and the affluent.
“They want something a little bit left of center and craft beer fits that mold perfectly. They come for a connection with the inner city. This building is over 100 years old. It is old Joburg but with life breathed into it. What we are doing is beer that has been around for thousands of years but we are providing a fresh twist. That paradox is what complements the area quite well.”
The names of their beers are drawn from the inner city: the Braamfontein Brawler; the Maboneng Maverick and the Bree Street Belle. Is it too close to home?
“It won’t affect national sales. It’s a Jozi brand and we are known for that now. We wanted to tie our idea into the city and the urban vibe. People understand that,” says Martin.
The rapid growth of the craft beer scene in South Africa means that consumers are no longer solely drinking the mass-produced SAB products.
“For years SAB have run a monopoly. At the moment they are supporting local craft breweries and supply the local hops and malts at cost. They also support most of the festivals. Craft beer is such a small segment at the moment. They are trying to understand the new beer movement. They had a reputation for being against anything new or small but their attitude has definitely changed,” he says.
Compared to the international trend, SAB does not have to look over their shoulder any time soon.
“At the moment they shouldn’t be worried. If you compare the market in the United States (US) with that in South Africa, the US market has been going for 20 years and only takes a 5% share of the overall market. They have over 2000 breweries,” says Martin.
Roeks Griessel, the organizer of the South African Microbrewers Association and Guild, also thinks that SAB should not be worried.
“It is a different market. We provide beer for a premium market, while SAB cater to the mass market,” he says.
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According to the beer enthusiast, it is the wine farms that need to be concerned. Consumers could now be leaving their bottles of chardonnay in the cellar to gather dust so they can test their palates on the various flavors that craft beers are offering.
How South Africa’s major beverage companies view microbreweries is unclear. Both SAB and Brandhouse were not available for comment.
Is it the perfect time to open a micro-brewery then?
“We are right at the start of the curve. The demand from restaurants, bars and bottle stores is incredible. It’s in line with the craft beer booms around the world. In the next 15 to 20 years there will be a lot of growth,” Martin predicts.
SMACK! Republic are on their way to proving Martin right. In November, they were winners of the best beer from a new brewery at the inaugural South African National Craft Brewers Championship. It shows small beer can go a long way.   FL

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Smack In The Eye Of A Brewing Storm

Two days before last year’s Grammy Awards, the prolific South African jazz musician and activist, Hugh Masekela, arrived in Los Angeles. He had been nominated in the ‘Best World Music Album’ category for Jabulani, a collection of South African wedding songs, some of which are more than a century old.
Although it was the second Grammy nomination of his long career—his song Grazing in the Grass was up for best contemporary pop instrumental in 1969—Masekela didn’t seem too preoccupied with the possibility of winning.
“Awards are not really my thing,” he says with a shrug.
At the time, the 75-year-old artist was content to catch up with his son Sal Masekela, who is best known as a TV host for ESPN’s X Games coverage and the E! Entertainment celebrity gossip show, The Daily 10.
Sal’s latest endeavor was an album of his own, The Sound of Alekesam, a blend of hip-hop, jazz and R&amp;B that wafts over the speakers at his production company office, where he and his father had just completed their first ever photo shoot together.
“The album sounds good, Selema,” Hugh says, slapping his son on the back and calling him by his full name, as he always does.
It’s no small compliment from a musician who has released more than 40 albums and performed with Dizzy Gillespie, The Byrds, Fela Kuti, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Miriam Makeba.
Sal smiles sheepishly and says, “Thanks, man.”
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Sal is 42, and over the course of their relationship there has at times been distance between the two men, both physical and emotional. It was not always easy having a father who was constantly touring, who lived in exile from his homeland for 30 years while speaking out against South Africa’s apartheid, or who once struggled with substance addiction. But their bond is a strong one.
“The great thing about my relationship with my dad is that we’ve always been able to pick up where we left off. We’re two guys running on one track with a baton, and we’ve each sometimes had to go in different ways, but we’re there to hand it to each other,” says Sal.
Today, both father and son find themselves looking forward, while also embracing their roots.
Hugh is committed to restoring African heritage. Born in the town of Witbank, east of Johannesburg, he has always drawn inspiration from the music of his country.
“The music I make, I don’t call it my music. It is based on my township and indigenous rural roots in South Africa. That’s what brought me fame all over the world,” he says.
Hugh first started playing the piano when he was five years old.
“I didn’t go into it for notoriety or fame. I just went into music because I love it,” he says.
At the age of 14, he was given his first trumpet by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the late British anti-apartheid activist. Hugh began to develop his signature sound in the late 1950s, melding jazz with African influences.
He left South Africa in 1960, aged 21, beginning a 30-year exile. Settling in New York during a golden age of jazz, he attended the Manhattan School of Music and watched legends like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong firsthand. His first album, Trumpet Africaine, was released in 1963.
In the ensuing decades, Hugh became an international star and an outspoken political voice with songs such as Stimela, Soweto Blues and Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela), which became an anti-apartheid anthem.
Sal was born in 1971 and, like his father, grew up immersed in music.
“My earliest memories of my father are being with him in jazz clubs. Hanging out in studios and being around music and around artists that talked about the world,” he says.
As Hugh divided his time between the United States (US) and Africa, living in Zaire, Liberia and Nigeria, Sal was raised by his mother, Jessie Lapierre, a Haitian immigrant, and his stepfather, Manny Gonzalez.
“I’m a unique first-generation American. I borrow from all of it. I’m lucky in that I get to take the influences and the principles of my different cultures and shape them into who I am as a person,” says Sal.
As a young man, Sal marched to the beat of his own drum. Upon moving from New York to California in 1988, he took up surfing, which sparked his love of action sports. One of the tracks on his album alludes to his individualistic nature and his love of the ocean, as he sings: “I’m a black cowboy riding a dolphin”.
In 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela, Sal joined his father on his homecoming tour in South Africa.
“It was really crazy. While Mandela had been released, apartheid itself was having a very hard time breaking down. I think people were starting to see that it was going to take a long time to put this car in reverse. There was a lot of violence and it was a tense time,” says Sal.
“It was very fulfilling for me to be able to bring him home and for him to see the other side of his heritage,” Hugh says.
In 2010, the two traveled throughout South Africa during the Fifa World Cup for ESPN’s 10-part video series titled ‘Umlando—Through My Father’s Eyes’.
“I took him to the poorest places in the country, to see the other side of it, and also the beauty of the country. It was just wonderful to watch him take it all in,” says Hugh.
For Sal, it was a different South Africa than the one he had visited previously.
“You could pull up at a red light and there’d be a car full of white people at the red light next to your car, and they might wave to you or smile. That might sound minute but the texture of the way people dealt with each other was different—especially among the younger generation,” he says.
The experience gave him immense hope for what the next 20 or 30 years could be like in South Africa.
When it comes to their own futures and those of Africa, Hugh and Sal are both ambitious and optimistic.
In the past year, Hugh has been busy performing in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the US, Canada, Europe and throughout Africa. He also spent five weeks in Trinidad and Tobago working on an album with Siparia Deltones, a steel band. The album is expected this year on Hugh’s record label, House of Masekela.
Sal has been equally busy covering surfing and mountain biking, writing new songs, and developing Art of Craft, a line of limited-edition T-shirts. The shirts are created in collaboration with artisans and a portion of the proceeds is donated to a charity of each subject’s choosing. Hugh was the first artist to be featured.
Sal was due to return to South Africa in March to ride in the Cape Epic, an 800-kilometer mountain bike. He also had plans to work with the South African surfer Jordy Smith, a good friend who does charity work in Durban to promote the sport to youth.
“I’ve always said that the first surfer of color that will have a real shot at the World Tour is going to come from South Africa,” Sal says during a recent phone call.
His optimism echoed that of his father during their earlier conversation before the Grammys.
“There is no society that has as much diversity and wealth and a reservoir of music and other things than Africa. We’re looking at Africa in its embryonic stage as far as I’m concerned,” says Hugh.
Hugh did not win the Grammy but when you are a legend, who cares?   FL

Tag: October 2014

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Just A Guy With A Mic

On The Ebola Frontline

Africa’s Worst nightmare

Hate Mail And Death On Stage

The Floor Worth $80 Billion

Beyond The Catwalk

Bloodied But Unbowed: The Journalist Prepared To Die

The Smart Money is on African Art

Deficits And Debt Ceilings

Guerilla Bloggers

Stateside Sisterhood Success

Hopping Hurdles

Money On Tap In The Slow Lane

Smack In The Eye Of A Brewing Storm

Strong and Together in Song