When Rina Chunga-Kutama started her business, she was just trying to make some extra money while studying. Since then, her African brand, Rich Factory, known for its distinctive Zambian prints, has grown in leaps and bounds.
Chunga-Kutama was born in Zambia but grew up in Botswana and lived there for 15 years. She moved to Polokwane, in the Northern Province of South Africa, in 2004. Despite this, she’s never forgotten her Zambian heritage which is evident on her clothing.
She studied fashion at LISOF in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, but started working on her business during her gap year in 2007.
“I got a job from a designer lady in Polokwane who was sewing. I learned to sew and that’s when I started making pieces for people, creating garments for pocket money,” she says.
<div id="attachment_35289" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35289" class=" wp-image-35289" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Rich-Factory-_AW18-m-200x300.jpg" alt="Rich Factory Rina Chunga-Kutama" width="250" height="376" />A model wears a dress made by Rina Chunga-Kutama (Photo by Eunice Driver)</div>
In 2008, she went to college but faced financial difficulties. Because of this, she had to alternate between going to school for a year and taking a year off. When she finally got to her third year in 2012, Chunga-Kutama still had two modules from the first year she had yet to complete and couldn’t graduate.
That did not stop the young lady from pursuing her dreams. Chunga-Kutama knew most of what she needed to start a business, and she was also not keen on being in the same class with younger students – she was 25 years old at the time – and so went straight into the working field.
“I wasn’t in school so I could do the business full-time, it was a full-time business because the clients were coming in and I was still working from home,” she says.
By 2013, it wasn’t about making pocket money anymore. She moved out of her sister’s home and rented a cottage in Melville, Johannesburg. Here, she installed mirrors and converted her home into a shop.
Chunga-Kutama has never looked back and has grown her business and worked with celebrities, like award-winning South African musician Zahara, actress Terry Pheto, and actress and model Nomzamo Mbatha.
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Chunga-Kutama made an impression on Mbatha when they met at a shoot in 2015.
“I remember they had this girl [from] Rich Factory and she was doing the styling. The stuff that she had pulled for me was just so apt. Working with someone I’ve never met before, they knew exactly how to style me for that campaign according to my personality and body. Everything fit really well and I loved how funky and how out-of-the-box her thinking was when it came to styling and I just enjoyed her as a person,” says Mbatha.
After the shoot, a friendship was sparked and the two decided to collaborate. Rich Factory was now dressing Mbatha for red carpets locally and internationally, such as BET’s Black Girls Rock! awards ceremony in New Orleans, United States, the MTV Europe Music Awards in the Netherlands, and the Cinema Camp Film Festival, among others.
“The Camp Film Festival was a huge footprint for us because everyone was in their beautiful ball gowns and here’s this yellow, African, kente print walking the red carpet and everyone was having a moment,” Mbatha recalls.
<div id="attachment_35288" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35288" class=" wp-image-35288" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Rina-Chunga-Kutama-1-300x200.jpg" alt="Rina Chunga-Kutama Rich Factory" width="530" height="353" />Rina Chunga-Kutama (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
Although it is not something that Chunga-Kutama pursued, Rich Factory garnered business and free publicity from dressing celebrities.
Rich Factory has gained attention from its celebrity clients but has become more strategic about taking on famous clients. Chunga-Kutama doesn’t want it to be seen as a celebrity business and alienate other clients without the buying power.
Her first celebrity client was musician and TV personality, Nomuzi Mabena. Chunga-Kutama met her in 2011 while working as an intern for well-known South African fashion designer Khosi Nkosi. Mabena came second in a model search competition that Chunga-Kutama was styling. A few years later, Mabena won the role of an MTV Base video jockey and needed garments; Rich Factory was happy to assist. Mabena really helped Rich Factory take off.
“I was in the magazines and newspapers because of her,” says Chunga-Kutama.
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In 2017, Rich Factory found itself walking the ramps at the South African Fashion Week (SAFW) in collaboration with Nestlé for its chocolate, Aero.
Chunga-Kutama was approached by Sunshine Shibambo from marketing and advertising agency Cheri Yase Kasi to work with the chocolate brand.
“The brand was looking for a South African designer to partner with that was expressing their positioning which was ‘let go’. Someone who is not confined by the prints or fabrics that they are working with but always finding a release in their fashion, new forms and new shapes. So she was the perfect candidate,” says Shibambo.
<div id="attachment_35290" style="width: 259px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35290" class=" wp-image-35290" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Rich-Factory-_AW18-l-200x300.jpg" alt="Rich Factory Rina Chunga-Kutama" width="249" height="374" />A model wears a dress made by Rina Chunga-Kutama (Photo by Eunice Driver)</div>
Chunga-Kutama was never going to say no to chocolate and showing at SAFW.
According to Chunga-Kutama, the brief was perfect because she has a playful brand. She used African prints only and didn’t use any western fabrics.
The collaboration was incredible, according to Shibambo.
“The collection had a play of the Nigerian shape with a combination of geisha and Asian inspired shapes, which isn’t the normal traditional form for a designer using African print,” she says.
Chunga-Kutama has a team of five people working with her. Two are based at a factory in Johannesburg’s central business district, while Dimo Kutama, her husband and business partner, has opened a store in Parkhurst, a plush Johannesburg suburb.
Her husband used to work as a client care advisor but now runs sales and logistics at Rich Factory. It’s not an easy role.
“The only difference is time. When you’re running your own business, you never have time for anything, including a haircut,” says Dimo.
From starting in a garden cottage four years ago, Chunga-Kutama is now dressing socialites, in African fabric, around the world.

Traditional And Thriving

If you close your eyes, you may remember this. It was a historic moment for Africa’s film industry. For the second time, a South African film stood a chance to win an Oscar. Millions anxiously glued to their TVs, crossing fingers in hope. With a white envelope in hand, American actor Will Smith took to the stage. Without hesitation, he announced Tsotsi as the winner of the Best Foreign Language Film award in 2006.
The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood was packed with the who’s who of America’s film industry. You could see Terry Pheto, a newcomer in the industry who played Miriam in the film, clap her hands and sigh in relief as director Gavin Hood accepted the award. History had been made and Pheto’s life was never to be the same.
For Pheto, this was a world away from the streets of Evaton, the township 50 kilometers south of Johannesburg, where she was born on May 11, 1981. Here, she found her love for acting.
“My love for acting came from the love of storytelling. My grandmother was the best storyteller and I looked forward to story time every evening. My cousin, Siya, even nicknamed me storyteller because I also started telling stories like my grandmother,” says Pheto.
It didn’t end there.
Pheto says she knew she wanted to tell stories for a living. At the age of 20, she left home to study acting in Johannesburg. It was tough. She lived in a shack until she was 21. One day, while acting in community theater, she was discovered by Moonyeenn Lee, South Africa’s casting agent extraordinaire.
With a talented agent by her side, Pheto thought the road to stardom had finally arrived, yet she went to audition after audition for over a year and had no job.
“I had roles that had been offered before but they never worked out. Sometimes the filmmakers would decide to go a different direction,” she says.
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She was ready to pack her bags and go home when she received the script for Tsotsi.
“I am thankful that I trusted the process because I feel like God wanted me to be in Tsotsi which was my first film and was massive for my career. I was introduced to the industry by the right project.”
<div id="attachment_34890" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34890" class=" wp-image-34890" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Terry-Pheto-Tsotsi-e1513844140788-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />From left to right: Actor Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto and director Gavin Hood with the Oscar that Tsotsi won. (Photo by Getty Images)</div>
It was the perfect role for Pheto. Miriam is an attractive, young, single mother. She lost her husband, who was murdered on his way home from work. Despite her pain, she maintains her dignity and runs a small sewing business to support herself and her child.
It marked the rise of who many see as the leading lady of film in Africa. Everyone wanted a piece of her talent. International roles quickly trickled in.
In 2008, Pheto joined the list of beauties endorsing L’Oreal.  It set her as the first South African face for the cosmetics giant. She then left South Africa to try her luck in Hollywood. It was the right decision. She landed a recurring role as Dr Malaika Maponya on The Bold and the Beautiful, an American soap opera watched by 35 million people every day.
“I got a call from the SABC and I thought it was a joke… Because I didn’t audition for the role, the role was given to me… It was such an honor to work with people who have been doing this for such a long time and being chosen was dream come true for me,” she says.
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Pheto says working on a soap was a culture shock. She was used to films where there is more time to work. On a soap there are multi cameras and everything is done at lightning speed.
Her acting career was progressing just as quickly.
In 2017, Pheto also became the first South African to play Winnie Mandela, a character that has been played by American singer and actress, Jennifer Hudson, London-born Sophie Okonedo and Naomie Harris, an award-winning Cambridge University educated actress. These are big shoes to fill, but Pheto nailed the role in the miniseries, Madiba.
Pheto says she always felt like she knew Winnie Mandela, even before she met her because of how people admired her. In preparation for the role, she read books and watched interviews and documentaries of the struggle icon.
“Playing Mam’ Winnie Mandela has always been my ultimate dream. She is powerful and remains a beacon of hope considering all she has been through. …I have met her before but Mam’ Winnie hasn’t been too well so I couldn’t spend time with her to prepare for this role. There is no greater blessing than living your dream. I am very lucky to be doing what I love,” she says.
<div id="attachment_34891" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34891" class=" wp-image-34891" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Terry-Pheto_JC-200x300.jpg" alt="Terry Pheto" width="300" height="450" />Terry Pheto (Photo by Jay Caboz)</div>
At home and abroad, this leading lady always steals the show. Hard work mixed with talent has won her more awards than we can count.
This September, she added two international accolades, at International Achievement Recognition Awards (IARA Awards) in London, to the list. She was the biggest winner of the night bringing home the Best Actress 2017 award for her role in A United Kingdom, and the Best Actress TV/ Drama 2017 for her role in Madiba.
“Both A United Kingdom and Madiba portray very important stories. Seeing these stories travel globally has been a beautiful journey. It has been an absolute honor to be in a position to have played strong characters in both roles. Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for example is one of the strongest women I know. I’m in awe of her strength and resilience after all she’s been through. She inspires me to believe that I can overcome any obstacles or challenges in life and still remain human, kind and unshaken,” says Pheto.
A United Kingdom depicts the true story of Seretse Khama, Botswana’s first president.  Pheto plays his sister, Naledi Khama, alongside British-Nigerian actor, David Oyelowo, known for playing Martin Luther King Jr in the 2014 awarding winning movie, Selma.
Oyelowo is not the only international star Pheto has worked with. Among them, she counts Idris Elba on Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.
“It was fun working with Idris. He is very humble and very talented,” she says.
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Pheto says her mind is always working in overdrive. It means she can wear many hats. In addition to her successful career in front of the camera, she is also an entrepreneur.
“I knew it is important to also be behind the scenes and know what happens there. I am able to produce and also act and do other things. You just have to surround yourself with the right people.”
Ten years after Tsotsi, Pheto produced her first film under her production company, Leading Lady Productions. The production company has just finished working on a short film shot in Los Angeles.
“I am working on developing enough content. There is a library of scripts I am going through for next year,” she says.
There is more.
This year, Pheto and her best friend, actress Mampho Brescia, cofounded, Let’s Learn Toys, an educational toys company to help prepare children to be leaders. Although not a mother yet, Pheto says, in a statement, she is a devoted aunt who tries to give children around her more than she had growing up. The company has 2,000 different toys for children between 12 months and 18 years.
Surely, there should be a secret to this success?
“One thing I learned from a very young age is to be humble and always respectful. These are the principles my mother and grandmother taught me and they were right because people can see through you. Working hard and everything else just adds to that,” she says.
Clearly, this is not the last we will see of Pheto.

Terry Pheto: From Community Theater To The World Stage

It was a beginning dogged by poverty, but inspired by dreams. Actress Terry Pheto’s family was too poor to own a television set and she grew up paying 10 cents a day to sit on the floor to watch TV with her neighbors. Now, she sits in Hollywood and makes a fortune from appearing onscreen in the soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful.
So was it by sheer luck that Pheto was chosen in a country full of accomplished and perhaps more experienced actresses? Vukile Madlala, the publicity manager at the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s SABC1, explains how it all started: “Since we are the channel that carries The Bold and the Beautiful as one of our longest-running soapies, the producers of the soap came down with a handful of their actors for a South African tour. It was during that trip that they discussed with us the possibility of developing an African character. They asked us to nominate a few actresses, and Terry Pheto was one of the actresses we put forward.”
It would seem that this move by the American producers was a calculated one. Madlala points out that The Bold and the Beautiful is still among the top five rated shows on SABC1. Simply put, viewers are still hooked—even after many years of watching the storyline unfold.
A look at general viewership trends reveals that while the craze over reality television is crushing the soap opera in the US, Africans are still tuning in—and in large numbers, compensating for the loss of viewers and income on home turf.
All of these factors have conspired to take a woman from Boipatong in the Vaal Triangle, near Johannesburg, to Hollywood. It has been a long journey.
Pheto has certainly come a long way from being the child whose family didn’t own a television. She had to drop out of college during the second year of an IT diploma, because there was no money for tuition, and joined a community theatre group.
It was a long apprenticeship that bore fruit in 2008. She found fame after being cast in the 2006 Best Foreign Film, the South African Oscar-winning movie, Tsotsi. Then, Pheto was selected as the face of international cosmetic giant L’Oréal Paris, following in the footsteps of Jane Fonda, Halle Berry, Beyoncé Knowles, Freida Pinto and Cheryl Cole.
Now, Pheto is playing the role of Dr Malaika Maponya in The Bold and the Beautiful.
“It was amazing playing a South African on one of the world’s most famous American soaps,” she says. “I didn’t have to learn a new accent, I didn’t have to venture too much into the unknown—all I had to do was make sure I knew my lines by the time I arrived on set because the level of professionalism there is unlike anything I have ever seen before.
“The production is like an incredibly well-oiled machine that runs with amazing precision. There’s simply no room for error or tardiness. You get only one take, and there is an expectation that you must get it right the first time,” she explains.
With the type of opportunities that she’s had at her disposal so far, Pheto would most certainly be forgiven for packing her bags and relocating to the United States permanently in pursuit of her own Charlize Theron fantasy tale. She already travels back and forth for classes and workshops. She has great connections and relationships with the South African community making it big in Hollywood—the likes of Gavin Hood, creator and director of Tsotsi, the very same guy who took a great gamble by putting Pheto and a few other community theatre actors in front of the camera for the first time.
But as I engage her on her current and future plans, it is pretty clear that the African continent features front and centre in her plans.
Growing her resumé as an actress is also top of mind for Pheto. She has recently been one of the main stars in a local movie called How to Steal R2 million, where she played the character of Olive—a feisty township girl who will do whatever it takes, even crime, to survive.
“I am currently reading scripts and attending castings. In our local film industry, you are lucky to do two movies a year. So I am constantly in search of my next big movie project,” says the lady whose portfolio includes roles in movies such as Catch a Fire and Goodbye Bafana, in which she played Zindzi Mandela.
Pheto also has ambitions of making it behind the camera. “A while ago, I got awarded a scholarship to study filmmaking and directing at the New York Film academy. And as soon as I can identify a gap in my schedule, I will be enrolling in that course,” she says.
She would love to collaborate with the stars and directors in Nollywood, the highly successful Nigerian movie circuit. “I admire how the Nigerians delight in their own culture and how they love telling their own stories. With the kind of viewership numbers they attract, and our sense of quality in production as South Africans, we can do really big things together,” she says with a smile.

Tag: Terry Pheto

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Traditional And Thriving

Terry Pheto: From Community Theater To The World Stage

TERRY PHETO