Indian billionaire and chairman emeritus of Max Group, Analjit Singh, a <a href="/cover-story/2015/07/01/man-pouring-millions-rich-slice-africa/">FORBES AFRICA cover in 2015</a>, says he is increasing his investments in the hospitality sector in South Africa. On a visit to Johannesburg mid-May, Singh spoke to FORBES AFRICA of his bias towards the Cape. In four years since setting up a base and “home away from home” in the Franschhoek winelands of Cape Town, he has “17 land holdings here and substantial hectarage under wine cultivation”. He established the Leeu Collection here, and now owns three hotels, five restaurants and an award-winning wine business.
<blockquote>
I am a citizen of the world. Why must I only be in India?
</blockquote>
says the Founder and Chairman of Max India Limited with diverse interests in life insurance, healthcare, health insurance and senior living.
He has been ranked by FORBES as one of India’s richest, with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Singh is a partner in Mullineux &amp; Leeu Family Wines, which produces wines in the Swartland wine region, some 800 kilometers north of Cape Town. This is overseen by winemaking duo Chris and Andrea Mullineux. He runs a 17-key country house and winery on Leeu Estates, a 68-hectare farm in the Franschhoek valley, and secures wine from 50 vineyards in Franschhoek and Stellenbosch. In the charming one-road village of Franschhoek, he also renovated Leeu House into a 12-room hotel that’s “very Cape Dutch” featuring thatched roofs, gables with plaster art, shutters and stable doors. He has also installed on both sides of the large garden, statues of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi – bought at the Everard Read art gallery in Johannesburg.
<div id="attachment_31779" style="width: 1031px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31779" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-31779 size-full" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739.jpg" alt="" width="1021" height="512" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739.jpg 1021w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739-600x301.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739-768x385.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1021px) 100vw, 1021px" />The Leeu Estate Manor House. Photo supplied</div>
Incidentally, the gallery has just opened in Franschhoek as well, in partnership with Leeu Collection. At the Heritage Square piazza a few meters away, he opened Marigold, the town’s first Indian restaurant, and, again a first for Franschhoek, he set up Tuk Tuk, a craft beer microbrewery. He says it is now the most happening place in Franschhoek. “I am not done yet in Franschhoek,” says Singh. “I was looking for new vistas and personal renewal, so Franschoek appealed. I have found such connect and sense of place here.”
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2015/07/01/man-pouring-millions-rich-slice-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The man pouring millions into a rich slice of Africa</a>
With a “substantial, high-end presence” in the winelands, Singh’s boutique winery targets the export markets of the United Kingdom, some parts of America, Europe and is just about making an entry into Asia.
Singh, who fell in love with South Africa when he first visited the country in 2010 for the FIFA World Cup, spends more than three months a year here. “I fired myself as the chairman of most companies [in the Max Group], I have no operational responsibilities. My level of involvement is almost negligible,” says Singh.
South Africa’s recent downgrading and all the noise in the current political environment is clearly no deterrent for the international investor. “We can be victims of analysis paralysis… If you spoke to someone in France 10 days ago, they would say don’t invest in France. Look at it now, they say ‘invest in France’,” he says.
He has also now acquired properties in Lake District, Florence and London. With a total of “68 keys combined in all properties” around the world, he says this will grow to 105 by the end of next year.
Singh’s long-term vision is to venture into game parks and safaris in this part of Africa, and he is also currently looking at the education space in South Africa.

Analjit Singh

Indian Billionaire Singh Not Done Yet In South Africa

In Franschhoek, a village near South Africa’s Western Cape with 17th-century charm and postcard views of the Drakenstein Mountains, is L’Ormarins, a 3,200-acre estate belonging to Johann Rupert; it’s the largest part of Anthonij Rupert Wyne, the South African billionaire’s wine empire. Driving past a Rodin sculpture in the garden and equally statuesque stallions on the lawns, he arrives at the property early one February morning in a jovial mood, the harvest season under way. His comfortably appointed study is in one of the property’s newer buildings, its red wine cellar designed to resemble the inner workings of a watch (an appropriate metaphor for Rupert, who built his fortune as chairman of Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods and jewelry company with such brands as Cartier, Van Cleef &amp; Arpels and Piaget).
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The 65-year-old Rupert belongs to that substratum of the stratospherically wealthy for whom silence is considered platinum. He rarely gives interviews but is undeniably garrulous when the conversation is about wine. Visible through the study’s windows are rows of Chenin Blanc, a popular varietal in South Africa that rivals the Loire Valley’s.
“Chenin Blanc is a wine that, if properly handled, is a really nice drinking wine,” says Rupert, deeply tanned and smoking his way through a pack of cigarettes. With a net worth of nearly $6 billion, he has never underestimated the value of a good customer. “I look at people, and I would say there are sippers and there are drinkers. People who stir a salad around and sip a bit of Sauvignon Blanc are probably the same people who in the past would drink spritzers. They’re not wine drinkers, and I’m not in that business. I want people who love wine.”
In leading both Richemont and his winemaker, Rupert innately understands the competition to capture discerning customers. Many wealthy men have been known to buy wineries as markers of success, much in the way they purchase sports teams or movie studios. What the trophy-vineyard set lacks and Rupert possesses is an intimate connection to his grapes: Winemaking is far more than an expensive hobby – it’s deeply personal. The original owner of Anthonij Rupert Wyne was his younger brother, Anthonij, who, in 2001, at age 50, died in a car crash. “He was my best friend,” says Rupert, “and I wanted to finish his dream.”
Eager to bring his brother’s vision to its full fruition, Rupert has substantially expanded the winemaking operations, adding hundreds of acres of vineyards farther north and to the west – and next door, too, after purchasing land from Graham Beck, whose sparkling wine was reportedly used at both Nelson Mandela’s and Barack Obama’s inaugurations. Visitors to L’Ormarins and other nearby wineries typically stay in one of the country hotels in Franschhoek; the luxe La Residence, starting at $530 a night, is the best of the bunch. Close to L’Ormarins, in neighboring Stellenbosch, is diamond billionaire Laurence Graff’s winery, the Delaire Graff Estate, which has ten lavish lodges, beginning at $800 a night. Nearby Babylonstoren, owned by billionaire Koos Bekker, costs a lot less (starting at $250) but is sumptuous, too.
To reach a broad international clientele, Rupert has insisted on exporting his goods in climate-controlled containers, a change from the usual shipping method a slow boat through varied temperatures that can alter a wine’s character. And among his winery’s new offerings is a line called Terra Del Capo, made from Italian vines, a tribute to Anthonij’s fondness for that country’s wines. More personally, he learned to accept that winemaking would never have the same level of predictability as, say, his watch business. “Once we’ve done our jobs properly,” he says of Richemont, “then we don’t have to worry about a drought, hail or some bug I’ve never heard of in my life. If you have any overconfidence, the wine industry will take that out of you quickly.” His estate’s greatest success fittingly carries his brother’s name: the Anthonij Rupert 2007, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. (It’s also priced like a Bordeaux, at $100-plus.) The vintage scored a 95-point rating from the industry bible, Wine Spectator, in 2012 only the fifth South African wine to do so and is, naturally, hard to find these days.
A surprise hit was a 2005 Petit Verdot originally produced as part of a blend (in keeping with Bordeaux custom). In its early stages it was powerfully tannic, but once left to age it improved immensely. Rupert’s staff decided to bottle and sell it as a stand-alone wine but didn’t consult with their boss. He wasn’t disappointed.
“People went crazy for it,” he says. “True wine lovers discovered it.” A French acquaintance tried a bottle and took a case to France to share among friends in the industry. “They said, ‘It’s not possible!’ They couldn’t believe it. Guess what? We’re starting to make it again this year, and we’re going to plant some more.”
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Rupert also enjoys a prosperous partnership with Baron Benjamin de Rothschild originally forged by Anthonij; Rupert &amp; Rothschild wines include the highly rated Baroness Nadine Chardonnay. As for the billing on the bottle, Rupert recalls the baron saying simply that it “sounds better than Rothschild &amp; Rupert.” What you won’t find Rupert making much of is Pinotage, South Africa’s signature variety, first developed about a century ago. To many winemakers the cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut (also known as Hermitage) is an unpalatable, barnyard-evoking wine. “I just don’t have an affinity for Pinotage,” he says. “I’ve said to my colleagues, ‘We’ve got to make wine that I like, because if I can’t sell it at least I can drink it.’”

Putting The Boer  Into Bordeaux

Time stands still for no woman; this truth is the thread running through Helen Zille’s life and career. Zille is currently the Premier of South Africa’s second largest province, by GDP, the Western Cape. For the last seven years, she has also been the leader of South Africa’s official opposition party – the Democratic Alliance (DA) – suffering all the slings and arrows that go with the job. At 63 years old, she is a wife and mother; an anti-apartheid activist and a former journalist.
“I try to use each minute that I have. I also enjoy being busy. I always say that for relaxation, I enjoy working slowly, without being under too much pressure,” she says.
It has been a tough year. The South African general elections, in May last year, saw the DA garner nearly 22% of the votes, an increase of 3.25%; a slow and painful eating away of the vast majority held for 20 years by the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
“We win three per cent at every election and then go away and cry for five years until we can try again,” said one DA activist on election night in Pretoria.
Even for the indefatigable Zille, the campaign trail proved a sapping marathon. It was born under a bad sign; before a vote was cast there was an embarrassing bungled coalition with a smaller political party run by Mamphela Ramphele – Agang. The two leaders sealed the deal with a kiss, but ended up spitting as the coalition fell apart.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-29965 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037-223x300.jpg" alt="" width="223" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037-223x300.jpg 223w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037-300x404.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037-600x808.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037-768x1034.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037-761x1024.jpg 761w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover037.jpg 760w" sizes="(max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px" />
“I offered her the world, she wanted the universe, she has ended up with a shack in Pofadder,” said Zille on election night of the still-born coalition. For the uninitiated, Pofadder is a small town in South Africa’s very quiet Northern Cape province.
The press had a field day, but the best was yet to come. There was talk of discord in the DA ranks right up to the casting of the last vote. To make matters worse, Zille’s right hand woman, Lindiwe Mazibuko, walked away after the elections. Many saw Mazibuko as the heir apparent.
Zille will battle through. In less than 18 months, she faces South Africa’s Municipal Election, where the DA is pushing to take the key provinces of Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipalities from the ANC.
This political street fight is not too far from her thoughts as Zille arrives at the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA photo shoot in a whirl. In the space of 30 minutes, she has parallel-parked and unloaded her car; pulled a collection of suitcases and bags up the staircase to the studio; greeted all in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa; investigated the wardrobe; made a call to her economics advisor; tweeted her whereabouts and thoughts to 546, 000 followers and has settled in for make-up and hair-styling.
“Even as a young girl, I never slept much. I was determined and very active. I was always organizing things – clubs, events and galas – anything!” says Zille.
Zille went to school in Johannesburg. She started out in 1974 as a political journalist writing for the liberal Rand Daily Mail. A 26-year-old Zille made headlines – along with then editor Allister Sparks – with an expose of the death in prison of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. The story of the attempt to cover up police brutality made headlines around the world and helped make Zille’s name.
“I enjoyed the pressure of the job. I enjoyed the investigative component of journalism, working against deadlines, being challenged. Those things float my boat, and that was the reason I really enjoyed my job at the Rand Daily Mail. I had grown up in a liberal home, so I was used to seeing my parents oppose apartheid. It was hard-wired in me and I did not think it was unusual.”
The newspaper shut in 1985 in a clampdown on freedom. Zille’s career veered into public policy and education when the University of Cape Town appointed her director of development in 1993.
At this stage, she was married with two small children and never dreamed a career in politics was just around the corner.
“I never intended to become a politician. It happened accidentally. When I was chair of the governing body of the Grove Primary School, where my children went to school, the government undertook such damaging actions, that I went to court to stop them – and when this did not help, I realized I had to be in the political arena to fight for what I believed in, where it really mattered – where policies and laws are made,” she says.
In fact, Zille was appointed provincial head of education after becoming progressively closer to the Democratic Party – an early incarnation of the DA – in 1999.
The next 15 years saw Zille rise through the leadership of the party, becoming a member of parliament in 2004, leader in 2007 and Mayor of Cape Town. The latter saw an election win by a wafer-thin majority.
“We had to put together a seven-party coalition and then we only made it by a single vote, if the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) abstained. The likelihood of that happening was really remote. But we managed to pull it off, and that vote defined the next five years,” she says.
Zille’s victories as Cape Town mayor included cutting crime and boosting the economy. Critics counter that South Africa was growing quickly anyway.
Despite this, Zille has weathered the squall through three national elections by never backing down.
As Western Cape premier, Zille sees her mission as the promotion of the province as a pocket of excellence that could bode well for ambitions to take over two more municipalities in the 2016 elections. The Western Cape’s green economy is one area which Zille has taken to with a passion.
The province is enticing foreign investors into the burgeoning wind and solar industries. The investment drive has brought in R8 billion ($645 million).
“Our government is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that wind farms are developed without unnecessary logistical and regulatory hitches. We are therefore appealing to developers to engage with us on any problems they encounter so that we can ensure the efficient roll-out of these farms across the province.”
Another area of focus for Zille is the promotion of the Western Cape as a breeding ground for young, creative tech types – an idea dreamed up in 2008 by tech entrepreneurs Vinny Lingham and Justin Stanford to help drum up venture capital. Since then, the ‘Silicon Cape’ has taken on a life of its own.
Zille may not be savaged in the same way as her predecessor at the DA, Tony Leon – who was once derided as a yapping Chihuahua – but the arrows of outrageous fortune have swished past her head.
Just ask one of Africa’s best-known scourges of the pompous and the political. Commentators and angry politicians have often accused political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, or Zapiro, of being tough on the ANC and gentler with the opposition.
Try telling Zapiro that as he took aim over the last year. His pen first drew Zille as Godzille – a monster-politician, in 2006, with tongue firmly in cheek.
This year, Zapiro reprinted the cartoon and inferred that Zille had become the caricature. He referred to Zille’s backlash against Mazibuko’s departure from the DA.
Zille confirmed that her professional relationship with Mazibuko had suffered and criticized Mazibuko’s track-record.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-29966 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ForbesCover257.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
“I like and respect Helen,” says Zapiro. “But she has many human failings. She takes charge of too many things and hasn’t loosened her hold on the party’s leadership. There is some evidence in the public space which suggests that the young bloods inside the DA are frustrated by her strong grip. For example, there was the incident where she tried to parachute Mamphela Ramphele into the organization.”
Zille has also been criticized for not using self-control on social media platforms, Twitter in particular where Zille takes on both supporters and critics. When she speaks about her public image, she is phlegmatic.
“The electorate is not static or homogenous. People see me in different ways which is why I have nicknames ranging from Godzille to Nontsapho (which means the mother of the family). I suppose some people see me as tough and ruthless, other people see me as kind and motherly – and everything in between.”
Mother or monster, love her or hate her; you can’t ignore Zille.

Godzille  – Why Cartoonists  And Voters Wait  For No Woman

Wupperthal, in the Western Cape Province, is home to the oldest shoe factory in South Africa. And if a hall of fame for prominent sales agents were to be built, former President Nelson Mandela and musical legend David Kramer would arguably feature with the founder, and German missionary, Johann Gottlieb Leipoldt, who started the enterprise in 1836.
Leipoldt and a fellow German missionary of the Rhenish Missionary Society, Theobald von Wurmb, founded the town of Wupperthal in the remote Tra-Tra valley on the edge of the Cederberg Wilderness in that year.
The factory is still housed in the original building set up by Leipoldt. Some of the tools and lasts are originals brought from Germany in the early 19th century.
At the height of its popularity, the shoe factory created jobs for between 42 and 46 skilled cobblers to manufacture the famous Wupperthal handsewn veldskoene (traditional Afrikaans soft suede shoes), which are famous for their comfort and good craftsmanship. Kramer and his love for the red suede shoes, which were his trademark, made those veldskoene famous with his Volkswagen TV advertisements. The veldskoene were also immortalized by his song about ‘rooi veldskoene’.
Mandela and Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the then minister of welfare and population development, visited the Wupperthal shoe factory in the late 1990’s and Mandela received his leather shoes from Arnold Gertse, the manager of the factory.
Mandela promptly put his new gift to use by wearing it.
By faxing the outline of their feet to the factory, customers can still order the shoes for between R320 ($38) and R400 ($47).
Tourism is a growing industry for Wupperthal, particularly during the Namaqualand flower season in August and September. There is cross pollination between international tourism and the shoe factory. The shoe factory is arguably Wupperthal’s most famous export product, luring thousands of visitors from Europe and Asia to visit this secluded valley.
And when they come to Wupperthal, they usually ask for directions to the shoe factory, where many of them purchase a pair of individually crafted shoes, like Mandela and Kramer did before them.
This factor has become a pivotal one in the survival and growth of the shoe factory, which has survived 176 years of economic turmoil, hardships and several logistical challenges.Tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced in April that 8,339,354 international tourists visited South Africa in 2011. One of the two most visited provinces was the Western Cape. The United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and France were South Africa’s top-five overseas tourism markets.
Bishop Emanuel Temmers, a former minister at the Moravian Church in Wupperthal, who pastored the church from 1904 to 1951, was a major force in transforming the shoe factory to a thriving international business, according to Willie Strassberger.
Strassberger and his eldest son, Heinie, masterminded the idea of establishing sales agents in other parts of South Africa, Namibia and even Germany. The comfort of the shoes, their longevity and the fact that they are easy to wear, were major selling points. Successors to Strassberger and his son used the same marketing ploys.
Mark Densel, former manager of the shoe factory, marketed the Wupperthal shoes internationally with some success at the turn of the century. The shoe factory still has an outlet in Clanwilliam. Denver Grauman, current minister of the Moravian Church, said the Wupperthal Shoe Factory had outlets in many other towns and also in Namibia, where the shoes were extremely popular.
Gertse, though, bemoans the fact that challenging logistics is limiting their growth. The isolated village is 300 kilometers from Cape Town and only accessible by a gravel road from Clanwilliam over Pakhuis Pass.
“When we make one trip to Cape Town to buy leather, glue and accessories, it will cost us R2,000,” he says.
“It is vital for us to establish a shop in Cape Town,” he adds.
Apart from Colin Zimri, who has been at the factory for over a decade, most of the other workers are third-generation craftsmen, like Mervyn Valentyn and Gerhard Farao. Gertse, who has been at the factory for 37 years, started his apprenticeship at the age of 16 under the close scrutiny of a shoe-master of decades—his uncle Piet Gertse.
“The establishment of other cheaper competitors on a massive scale, like those produced by China, has become a threat to the continual growth of the Wupperthal-shoe,” says Gertse.
The factory building still belongs to the Moravian Church, but the proceeds from the purchases benefit the workers as well as a community trust that was set up to support the 1,500 inhabitants of the town.
One of the dangers besetting an entrepreneur in a secluded town is what one can call “Waiting for Godot-complacency.”
It is passively hoping for divine intervention without benefitting from a business plan and a marketing campaign, and without putting the proverbial nose to the grindstone.
But Gertse and the Wupperthal community have been proactive. They partnered with influential friends in order to grow the factory.
Bishop Temmers said a few years ago, Chris Nissen, a former Western Cape leader of the ANC, invested a few hundred thousand rand in expanding and growing the shoe factory.
Nissen’s father in law was Martin Wessels—a former administrative head of the Moravian Church in South Africa—and as a benefactor, Nissen assisted the factory in order to maximize its impact on job creation and sustenance in Wupperthal.
Bishop Temmers said the shoe factory has survived some potentially crippling setbacks. One of them involved the Strassbergers. There was a little-publicized fall-out between Willie Strassberger and the Wupperthal community. Strassberger left Wupperthal after the break-up with inhabitants, and Heinie established a shoe factory copying the Wupperthal template in Clanwilliam.
“That was a major setback for the Wupperthal shoe factory, partially because Strassberger’s shoe factory is much easier accessible than Wupperthal’s factory,” said Bishop Temmers.
Gertse is aware of the challenges, and therefore Wupperthal’s shoe factory has branched out to other forms of leather sales that includes handbags and purses. Most sales of shoes, handbags and purses are to foreign visitors.
Homesick ex-pats in England, Australia and Germany, regularly order shoes, part of the life blood of the famous factory. But that’s not enough.
Wupperthal’s greatest challenge is to ‘take the shoe factory to the people if the people cannot come to the shoe factory’.
They also have to embrace the change in the foreign tourism landscape by focusing a marketing drive on the new emerging markets.
The increase in the country’s tourism arrivals in 2011 was driven by a 14.6% growth from the emerging markets of Asia—with a 24% increase in arrivals from China and a 26% increase in arrivals from India.
Van Schalkwyk recently promised that South Africa would continue to invest in marketing the country to India and China, adding that South African Airways’ launch in January of direct flights between Johannesburg and Beijing would add to the growth.
Gertse says the greatest single challenge to the shoe factory is to improve its visibility amongst Capetonians and foreign tourists to the city.
They are contemplating plans to establish a ‘Wupperthal-foothold’ in Cape Town, an outlet where they can sell shoes in order to take the oldest shoe factory in the country to the global community.

These Shoes Are Made For Walking And Walking

Woodstock and Stellenbosch in South Africa’s Western Cape are mere dots on the world’s IT map, but they could be Africa’s answer to Silicon Valley in the United States.
Tech entrepreneur Vinodan Lingham wants to make sure South Africa does get its own Silicon Valley and is putting his money where his mouth is.
Five of Africa’s top 20 tech companies are based in this small area of the Western Cape. Some of these companies are making waves on the global tech scene. One of them is internationally recognized Yola, which came second in FORBES AFRICA’s Top 20 Tech Start-Ups in Africa.
Yola is designed to assist small businesses by creating websites for free, initially. You only pay when your company advances and needs a more advanced website.
Lingham founded Yola in Silicon Valley in 2007 and lives there now. He says although adjusting to American culture was difficult, it only took him six months to get funding for his brainchild from JSE-listed Reinet Investments.
With offices in both San Francisco and Cape Town, Yola started out with venture capital of $25 million, but Lingham admits that starting Yola from scratch was not easy and credits naivety for his courage.
“Naivety breeds confidence. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have gone,” he says.
Seeing a large market opportunity, the likely chances of success crushed any doubts or fears the then 28-year-old may have had. Now 33 and one of Africa’s shining tech stars, Lingham was born in the Eastern Cape in South Africa during apartheid to a poor family, and was raised in a segregated area designated for Indians. With the end of the regime, his family rose to middle-class status so he could go to multi-racial Hudson High School, and then on to the University of Cape Town to study information systems.
“I was a total technology geek at school—definitely very entrepreneurial and probably the only person in school who could program when I was there.”
A successful entrepreneur with a third business to his name now, being a varsity drop-out has not deterred him along the way.
“I dropped out of varsity because my family couldn’t afford for me to study there.”
Being a permanent resident in California’s Silicon Valley for nearly five years now, Lingham has been around some of the tech world’s best brains, and says South Africa still has a long way to go.
“The skills are not at a high enough level. A lot of people go out and do theoretical stuff. There aren’t enough partnerships with businesses. Students come out of varsity with no skills. ”
Matthew Buckland, founder of Creative Spark, a digital agency based in Cape Town and a member of the Silicon Cape Initiative, agrees with Lingham.
“Universities also need to come to the party. Many of the world’s great start-ups were conceived at universities. We have a long way to go, but we’ll get there. Entrepreneurs are the future.”
The entrepreneurial spirit appears contagious in the Cape air. And people like Lingham make it look more attractive and tangible.
“I think Vinny is a machine. He’s an inspiration to many and it’s tough making it in San Francisco. I think it is positive for tech entrepreneurs in Africa. Vinny will gain valuable skills and networks that he’ll bring to the continent,” says Buckland.
Lingham criticizes that entrepreneurial spirit and says that, unlike back in California where most of the tech fundis started their companies during their university studies, he thinks the quality in SA is there but it could be better.
“The quality is there, but there’s not enough [of it]. There are about 50 honors students graduating a year from computer science and even less graduating with a Masters.”
Alan Knott-Craig Junior, owner of MXit, and digital media guru Matthew Buckland agree.
Knott-Craig Junior and Lingham cite the lack of updated cable infrastructure of the cables. Lingham criticizes Telkom’s monopoly as having a direct hand in the slow growth of the technology sector.
All three have a vision for the tech industry on the continent.
“I think there is a burgeoning start-up scene in parts of Africa, but it is still miniscule by world standards. Local venture capitalists need to put down real money on the table. They are far too cautious here, talk a big game and deliver little,” says Buckland.
Knott-Craig wants to conquer Africa through his social networking application; it enables users to use Instant Messages at a cheaper rate than SMSes on any applicable phone, not just smartphones.
Lingham sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but in his view it is obstructed by a confused giant.
“Law makers are getting in the way. South Africans just get ripped off on everything and the money isn’t even going to the poor. The Telkom monopoly hasn’t ended.”
Buckland agrees: “Government needs to come to the party with incentives and tax breaks for start-ups like the governments in the UK and France do.”
Hence the inception of the Silicon Cape Initiative, a vision that Lingham (among others) hopes will produce a mini Silicon Valley. It’s a 20-year non-profit vision, based on the same idea as Silicon Valley in San Francisco. It serves as a networking community, enabling self-started companies to have access to each other, and share knowledge and make it global. Funding for the initiative is foreign, and the aim is to expand SA’s talent to new shores.
“The innovation locally is doing well, but the problem is that globally we’re nowhere close to competing with the world. Companies coming out of Cape Town are trying to build new companies for a new market.”
Buckland acknowledges the efforts made by Lingham and company.
“Silicon Cape is an amazing concept. It’s run as a non-profit company by very busy people who do it on a pro bono basis. For the resources it has at its disposal, it has made amazing strides. Silicon Cape is both an idea for inspiration and a reflection of a reality taking place on the ground.”
He credits the guys in the Cape, saying: “The easy part is joining a corporate and learning the ropes. The hard part is coming up with something innovative—most people shy away from that. South Africans need to embrace failure. Young people have little to lose and can still take chances before reaching 30. Just focus on a certain problem that people aren’t working on.”

Tag: Western Cape

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